


oh, she waltzed with the dead

by Labyrinthinee



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alex Mercer/Willie - Freeform, Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Aunt Victoria/OFC, Background Relationships, F/F, F/M, Flynn is Julie's cousin in this story, Flynn/Carrie, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Molina Family Feels, Murder Mystery, Slow Burn, Sunset Curve (Julie and The Phantoms), julie molina said 'go haunt an old mansion! I hear Pasadena's nice' and I rolled with it, this is going to be the slowest of slow burns i think
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:34:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 31,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28489917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Labyrinthinee/pseuds/Labyrinthinee
Summary: After her mother's death Julie Molina's life is turned on its head. Not only does she lose the person closest to her, but finding out she never really knew her at all, changes everything.Moving to California, Julie is hell bent on finding out the truth. She's going to accept every help along the way, whether it be from new found friends or even weird psychics who seem to know more than they let on.The fact that their new house might be haunted by some cute ghosts, is just another addition to her ongoing list of questions.
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 124
Kudos: 162





	1. prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello wonderful people,
> 
> this is going to be another very long story because apparently I am unable to write drabbles.  
> It was supposed to be a fun little one-shot about the boys haunting a house in Pasadena and then it turned into... this.  
> The title is from Radical Face's 'The Dead Waltz' and every chapter title is going to be from them as well. I have been listening to their music on repeat while writing this and it just fits perfectly.
> 
> If you want to hang out with me, you can find me on [tumblr](http://serendipitee.tumblr.com/) or [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/lettering_labyrinth/).
> 
> A huge thank you to [EchoCharm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/echocharm) for her help with the summary!!
> 
> Have fun reading and feedback is always appreciated,  
> Bea x.

## PROLOGUE

_she got down on her knees_  
_and wrapped her long hair up in vines, and leaves, and branches_  
_and with the wind beneath her feet_  
_oh, she waltzed with the dead_

**Pasadena, CA, 1995**

Rose tried to concentrate on the road, she really did, but it was hard with a van full of boys, too excited for their own good.

They had been brimming with energy since Ms Jenksin, the realtor had called them up yesterday evening. It had been a short night afterwards, filled with music and drinks, cheering and screaming the lyrics at the top of their lungs. Sleep had come to them when they had all cuddled up on their old, stained pull-out couch. Luke had started strumming a lullaby on his guitar and Reggie hummed along in his deep voice. They had all drifted off slowly, Rose being the last, catching Luke’s hand in hers and squeezing.

She couldn’t believe, this was actually happening. Six months ago, everything had appeared to be at the brink of falling apart and now, now they were on their way to sign the papers for their very own mansion.

Driving up towards the house, the cheers became almost deafening and they fell out of the van, holding each other up, hands around each other’s shoulders and none of them could stop grinning.

“Ms Jenkins,” called out Alex, who was at least trying to seem somewhat professional. “Thanks for meeting us here!”

The mansion lay empty behind the woman, who pursed her lips as she gave them a once over. No hair was out of place on her head, a stark contrast to them and she grimaced a little when she realized the boys obviously hadn’t showered in the morning.

Luke had called dibs on the first shower in the new house without the faulty plumbing and the rest had fallen in line. Rose had simply shaken her head at them, before disappearing into the bathroom of their old apartment for the last time.

“Should we go inside to sign the papers?” Ms Jenkins looked towards her left shortly, before settling her eyes back on them.

Rose was leaning against Reggie, resting her head on his shoulder, stifling a yawn. Two hours of sleep were definitely too little, or maybe she was just getting old. She was on the bridge of turning twenty after all. After Bobby she was the oldest out of the bunch of them.

Luke, their baby and yet, the loudest, brashest of them, had just turned eighteen a few weeks back. He had tried to compliment her chocolate cake earnestly, but they all knew he missed the one his mom always used to bake for him.

Today, the thoughts of their old families were all so far away. They had found a new one in each other and gripping Reggie’s hand, Rose entered the house for the very first time.

It was beautiful, her mind already coming up with ways to make it theirs. The kitchen was the only part already furnished and Luke immediately jumped on the kitchen bar, his feet dangling a foot above the air, grinning lopsidedly. His mind was far away, eyes dreaming of mornings spent here, just the five of them.

Bobby and Alex took over the business talking part, while Rose started wandering around the first floor. There was a fireplace in the living room, which overlooked their garden. A pool and the pool house next to it ready for days spent lounging on the warm stones. She could already imagine the nights, when they’d be out there until the early hours of morning, creating music.

A smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

Luke’s cheers from the kitchen, drew her back to the rest of her family. Him and Reggie were high-fiving and she was pulled into a hug by Alex.

“It’s ours!”, exclaimed Luke, bouncing on the balls of his feet excitedly.

Rose laughed, ruffling his hair and Ms Jenkins sorted through her files, before turning back to them. “I hope, you do this house justice. It has grand history and between us, people actually tell ghost stories about it.”

She laughed, while Reggie paled and Bobby grinned, shaking his head. 

“Really?”, their bassist squeaked.

Luke pounded on his back. “No worries, Reg, we’ll keep you safe! No ghost gets past these!”

He flexed his arms, making all of them roll their eyes.

Ms Jenkins cleared her throat. “I’ll leave you alone for now. If you have any questions, you have my number?” She turned to Alex, obviously deciding that he was the one to trust with this kind of information.

The blond drummer nodded, holding up the business card.

A moment later she was gone, the five of them alone in their new home for the first time. They all looked at each other, smiles growing and reaching out to the one closest to them until they formed a band circle.

Stepping forward, their shoulders brushing against each other, they all bent their heads together. A peaceful quietness settled, the understanding of the love they all felt for every single one of the people in this room and Rose’s heart sung.

These four boys had helped her through so much the last two years, had been there for her when nobody else had been. They were her family, her brothers and she would do anything to protect them.

“Last in the pool has to do the dishes!” Luke’s cry interrupted them and he bolted out of the room, already ripping off his muscle tee.

They all laughed, pushing each other out of the way to follow him. Reggie and Alex were the first ones out the door with Bobby and Rose following at a more leisurely pace.

“Who’s going to tell him we have a dishwasher now?”, asked the boy with the shaggy black hair.

Rose chuckled, throwing an arm around his middle and squeezing him close.

“You know, Covington is going to want to see some progress, soon, right?” His voice was quiet, only meant for her ears.

She sighed as they stepped out into the sun. The cheers of their friends mixed with splashes of water coming up from the pool. Their joy made her smile and she pushed Bobby’s doubts away.

“Let’s celebrate first, huh?”, she asked. Tickling him, she got herself a head start, jumping into the pool fully clothed and joining her boys’ water fight.

Alex dunked her head under water twice before she got back at him with Reggie’s help. Luke climbed onto Bobby’s shoulders, crying out for a match to the death, which Reggie and Rose gladly accepted.

It was loud and rambunctious and absolutely wonderful to see her boys this happy after the months they had had and Rose was certain that given the chance, she’d do it all again.

Alex was the one to spot the head over the wall, watching them. He bumped his elbow into Luke’s side, pointing at the man.

The guitarist quickly rounded them all up, before waving, cheering, “Hey, we’re your new neighbors!”

“Sunset Curve—,” threw in Bobby.

“Tell your friends,” ended Reggie and they all laughed.

They were too busy having fun, dancing through the pool, Rose attempting to waltz with Alex in the shallow end, to realize the grim expression their new neighbor bore.


	2. welcome home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed this chapter so many times but am finally happy with how it turned out. Title is from Radical Face's 'Welcome Home', I absolutely love that song ❤
> 
> If you want to chat afterwards my [tumblr](http://serendipitee.tumblr.com/)'s inbox is always open!
> 
> Have fun reading and your feedback is always welcome,  
> Bea x.

## WELCOME HOME

_all my nightmares escape my head_  
_bar the door, please don't let them in_  
_you were never supposed to leave_  
_now my head's splitting at the seams_

Losing her mom was something that happened slowly and then all at once.

They had known for months that there’d be a moment when the machines would stop working, when she’d leave them behind but nothing, no amount of time could’ve prepared them for it.

It ended on a Thursday, the sun shining, birds tweeting in front of the hospital window. It ended at 4.48 in the afternoon as she took her last breath, hand becoming limp in her daughter’s grasp and the silence that followed had been deafening.

Carlos had gripped her other hand tightly, calling out for her again and again, begging her to take another breath, open her eyes but it never happened, and it never would again.

Julie had simply stared, eyes unblinking until they had dried up, burning with tears. The moment the first rolled over her cheek falling onto her mom’s old college sweater, she couldn’t hold them back anymore.

The following days everything happened in a blur, minutes and hours blending together into beautiful swirls of color, slowly fading to grey. Sounds echoed through her brain, trying to reach her, but Julie blocked them out. She started wearing her headphones at all times without any music coming from them but they effectively stopped her family from trying to talk to her.

Her school friends, the few she had made since they moved to Pennsylvania two years ago, stopped reaching out to her after a week of her not replying and she didn’t care.

The funeral came and went by with strangers coming up to them, saying their condolences and Julie didn’t even recognize their faces through her tears. She gripped her mother’s favorite brooch in one hand and her little brother’s in the other.

Afterwards, their house was bursting with people and she hid in her room, sitting on the window sill, knees tucked in and breathing against the glass, drawing little doodles on it absentmindedly.

She watched their neighbors’ kids running around on their front lawn, playing catch and hide and seek, ruining their good clothes in the dirt of the flower beds. Carlos joined them a little while later and Julie felt a pang of jealousy in her chest as she saw his carefree laughter when Dina Henderson found him in the rose bushes.

Her heart grew heavy, knowing that tonight when they’d go to sleep, Carlos would remember his mom tucking him in every night, kissing his head and he’d cry in the room next to hers because she would never do that again. And Dad, well, he tried but he was as hollow as the rest of them.

So, when the night came that day and Carlos realized that there’d be no tucking in and no forehead kisses, Julie laid down next to him, stroking his hair and reading his favorite book until he fell asleep. Putting down ‘Huckleberry and Finn’ on the nightstand, she turned off the lights. Careful to not wake him up again, she lay down next to him.

Maybe she’d be able to sleep better here.

She didn’t. The nightmares kept coming, flashing before her eyes, snippets and moments, the last year in a time lapse. Her mom falling outside, scraping her knees because her legs gave out. Shaking hands gripping hers, missed notes while playing piano, hair thinning out, throwing up after chemo. It all blurred in and out of her conscience until she snapped out of it, breathing heavily.

Carlos was looking down at her, wiping away her tears which just brought new ones.

“Are you okay,” he whispered, voice breaking and Julie realized that he was scared.

“Yeah, yeah, little dude, I’m fine.” She patted the space next to her for him to lie down again.

He did, resting his head on her shoulder. “I’m having nightmares, too, sometimes. But Mr Peterson always helps me.”

The teddy bear was sat down on her chest. It had once belonged to her, the gnawed off left year a constant reminder, that she had always had it in her mouth as a baby.

In Carlos’ care it had lost an eye, the eyepatch had been a birthday present this year. A red and black one, cut out of one of their dad’s old flannels.

“That’s… good.” Julie quickly dropped her eyes to her phone. It was shortly after two in the morning. “Think you can sleep some more?”

Carlos nodded against her shoulder and she stroked his hair again until his breathing evened out.

As she looked down at her little brother and back up at Mr Peterson, Julie knew that she had to change her ways. Be strong for him at least, show him that she was okay.

She didn’t get any more sleep that night.

**\- - -**

The next weeks, months flew by in a daze.

Julie woke up in the morning, prepared breakfast by her father’s side. She drove Carlos to school in the old and beat-up Toyota that had once belonged to their mom. School drifted by, the classes morphing into one another. She did her homework, her assignments, did well on tests but she rarely talked to her classmates, her teachers.

Their counselor tried to get through to her a few times, especially about her college applications but Julie wasn’t going to leave her family alone. So far, she had looked at the closest community college and that had been it.

College in itself, felt so far away. Her mom and her had always talked about the best music programs in the country. Julie knew all their requirements by heart but her own heart, it wasn’t in it anymore.

Had she played on her mom’s piano every day while she was alive, now it stood quietly in its corner, gathering dust.

After school, she picked up Carlos, drove him to baseball practice or a friend’s house, did the grocery shopping and then prepared dinner in the evening. Her dad always got home in time for it, them eating together was important to him, Julie knew.

Their mother’s illness had ripped a big hole into their family’s savings and he tried to take as many jobs as possible.

Every night, she’d tuck her little brother in, waiting until he fell asleep before she left the room. The door was never completely closed, light streaming in from the hallway. It happened often enough, that he crawled into her bed in the middle of the night.

She let him every time.

Everything changed when an important looking letter landed on the kitchen counter. It was the second to last week of school before the summer holidays and Julie picked it up, frowning.

For a moment, she thought it was from one of the colleges she and her mom had always talked about, but turning it around, she saw the return address was from California.

They didn’t know anybody in California. At least, she didn’t think so. When her dad got home that evening, she handed him the envelope. Her curiosity had been growing through-out the afternoon. Even Carlos had been intrigued by the thick letter, turning it this way and that to try to make out something, anything.

Their father read it, his brows furrowing, mouth falling open and when he let it sink down, he looked like he had seen a ghost.

“It’s from your mom,” he breathed out.

Julie and her brother both stilled, staring at their father. He put down the letter, resting his chin on his folded hands and she wasn’t sure if he had gotten much sleep in the last weeks either. The circles under his eyes got darker with every day.

“What does it say?”, she finally asked after he had been staring at a random spot on the dining room table for what felt like an eternity.

“She owns a house.”

“What—” Julie frowned, reached for the page and started reading. Had the envelope looked thick from the outside, the letter itself was fairly short.

_Dear Mr Molina,_

_I am contacting you on behalf of your late wife, Mrs Rose Molina. It has been three months since she passed away and per her request, I opened her will today._

She stopped. A will? Her mom had left a will? This was the first time she had heard about it. Julie read the rest of the short letter. There wasn’t much else in it. It was like her dad had said, she had left them a house. In California. Mom had hated California.

They had moved around the country ever since Julie could remember, never sticking around in one place long enough to make lasting friendships or memories and traditions, but they had never even come close to the west, sticking to the east coast mostly.

Her dad had by now pulled out pictures and a housekey from the envelope. Carlos crowed excitedly when he spotted a pool.

“Did you know?” asked Julie quietly when she had re-read the letter for the second time.

“No, I—I didn’t know.” Her dad obviously didn’t want them to see the hesitation but Julie spotted it. The worry that his wife had hid something from him and suddenly, there was silence in the kitchen.

There had been a certain kind of quietness in the house ever since they had come home from the hospital. The dark kind, with everybody thinking their own thoughts, having their own internal battles.

This silence was violent, shaking them, reaching the cracks in their foundation and rattling them to their bones.

“Are we going to move?” Carlos stepped up to his dad, resting his head on Julie’s shoulder.

“I’m gonna call that lawyer first. There has got to be more to this than just one single letter!” The doubt disappeared from her father’s face, paving the way for anger.

As he disappeared upstairs into his office to get his phone, Julie stared at the letter again before she slowly let her eyes wander through the room. Suddenly, she wondered if she had been as close to her mom as she had always thought.

Why had she never told anyone about the house she owned?

If they had a house in California, why did they move around so much? They could’ve had a proper home, to build traditions and have real friends.

They didn’t have a lot of personal things, most of the furniture had already been here when they moved in a little over two years ago. There was Mom’s piano and her old clothes which Julie had been wearing every day since she had left. A hoodie here, a scarf there, a shirt to sleep in, feeling the comfort of her mom’s embrace around her.

Her dad came back downstairs, giving whoever was on the end of the line his name. “I— Since when does she own the property?” 

There was the rustling of papers through the speakers before a thin voice said, “It doesn’t state that in here. But you are required to move there, live there with your family and… uh, tía Victoria for a year.” 

Her dad froze at the name, almost dropping his phone.

Julie knew that they had an aunt. Her mom had sometimes mentioned her in passing when telling stories of her growing up. They had never met her, though, hadn’t even see a picture. She hadn’t even bothered showing up for the funeral.

“Victoria?”, breathed out her father, paling, hands shaking.

“You are to live together for a year before you can decide what to do with the house.”

Julie felt, like she was thrown into a romance novel or a cheesy rom com. Was this all her mom’s plan to set up her dad with her aunt? Make them play house long enough for them to realize, they had always belonged together?

This couldn’t be right. Then again, her mother had always liked meddling.

But— was that even true? Slowly, Julie felt like she didn’t know her at all.

Sitting, watching her dad finished the phone call, she tried to listen to Carlos babbling about what they could do with a garden that size.

They sat around the table again after dinner that night, a half empty glass of wine in front of her dad and sodas in front of her and Carlos. An eerie silence filled the room after Dad had asked them all for their opinion on the move. Nobody wanted to be the first to say it. Even her little brother’s excitement had died down by now.

There was nothing that tied them to Pennsylvania, to stay in this house. It wasn’t where they grew up, where her and Carlos had taken their first steps, said their first words. These four walls meant nothing to them.

It had always been Mom who had kept the family together, who had made sure, her dad took time for his family away from his job and weird hours as a freelancer.

Mom had been the one, insisting on cooking together once a week, every Friday and trying out new recipes that she had found on the internet.

She had watched every one of Carlos’ baseball games and been to every recital and performance Julie had done.

If they had had a problem with homework – if necessary, she’d google it until she understood it, explaining it to them patiently – and if they couldn’t handle anything else life threw at them, then she had had a solution for that, too.

Her mom had just always been there by their sides and suddenly everything felt empty without her. It was tainted by the fact, that she had obviously had secrets.

While cooking, Julie had started making a list of all their personal things they would have to take with them. Every move they had had until now, had been meticulously planned by her mom. Now, it would be her that had to make sure, they left nothing behind.

With every other addition to her mental list, Julie realized, though, that with a lot of the things, she didn’t even know why they held on to them.

The old car was one of them, a constant that had moved around the country with them. Had she never questioned it before, now it felt weird to hang onto the old, rusted car that continuously broke down every two weeks.

The piano was another one, even though it wasn’t perfectly in tune anymore, they had packed it up and moved it with them from Michigan to Pennsylvania.

Then, there was a leather purse, that her mom had never used, hanging on the inside of her closet. Julie had spotted it a day or two after the hospital, trying to find something to keep her from shivering.

The purse itself was simple, more of a pouch than a purse. A pink heart was doodled on it and it looked worn which was strange because Julie definitely didn’t remember her ever using it.

Then there was a piece of jewelry, a necklace that she wore every day. It was a musical note, simple and beautiful. This one, though, Julie hadn’t seen since she had drifted off and they had left her.

She just hoped her dad had it somewhere.

Julie was hellbent on figuring it all out. She needed to know why her mom had held on to that Toyota, to the purse, the piano. Why did she have a house, sitting empty in California? What happened between her and tía Victoria to not have them talk to each other anymore?

The questions filled Julie’s head, for the first time casting out the memories and sadness.

It wasn’t a hard decision after they had all shared a look. They all agreed.

**\- - -**

The next days were spent with packing everything up. There wasn’t a lot, but Julie found even more stuff from her mom that she’d never seen before. A black notebook was stuffed into the lowest drawer of her desk, hidden beneath tax returns. It was filled with lyrics and songs. She googled them, came up empty. The handwriting was abysmal, though.

She found a painted leather vest in the depths of her sock drawers. Frowning, Julie hoped her dad had never seen it before. His reaction told her that he hadn’t.

The nights were spent, trying to find out about the mansion and how the hell her mother had ever gotten ownership of it. They had never been poor, but a mansion in Pasadena was next level.

Apparently, she hadn’t been the only one wondering, too, because she had spotted similar inquiries in her dad’s search history.

Slowly, she started to feel sorry for him. He had known Mom even longer than them, had known her on an entirely different level but apparently, he hadn’t known her at all.

He only stepped away from them even further.

California was very much like Julie had imagined it. It was hot, big and disgusting. 

They rented a car at the airport, throwing their suitcases in the trunk. Carlos was so transfixed on his phone, he almost walked into traffic, getting pulled back by his sister at the last second.

A glance shared, a breath let out and then he tore himself free from her grasp. Julie let him go. They had gotten into a huge fight right before leaving.

She had wanted him to put on a jacket.

Carlos had hurled the words ‘You’re not Mom!’ at her. She had tried not to let it hurt too much.

The car ride was as tense as the plane ride had been.

Julie tried to get her dad to listen to the navigation system installed in the car. He refused, using his phone instead, mumbling something about trusting it more. She drowned out the nasal voice coming out of his phone and busied herself with watching L.A. fly by, loathing it more with every passing second.

They had caught a glimpse of the ocean when flying in, before the airplane shifted, preparing for landing. The ocean, that was the one thing she was actually excited about. It’d be a little farther away in Pasadena but still, much closer than it had been in a long time.

Everything else, L.A. had to offer, though, she already hated with every fiber of her being. This was where her mom had lived a part of her life, she had shielded from them. Even though, Julie was eager to unearth it, she couldn’t help blame her mom for the rift that currently ran through their family.

The sun seemed to continuously mock her, it was dusty and way too hot for humans to exist outside for a prolonged period of time. The black hoodie she was sporting maybe didn’t help but Julie definitely didn’t feel like wearing anything else. It was comfy, like an embrace, surrounding her in something known and familiar.

An hour later, because traffic was a nightmare, they finally reached their destination. Big walls separated the houses from the streets on their left and right. There was nobody on the street itself, but Julie spotted at least three video cameras watching them arrive, completely out of place to their surroundings.

“Dad, are you sure this is right?” Julie asked, looking at him through the rearview mirror for the first time in, well, a while.

Her father nodded. “There’s Ms Jenkins.” He pointed at the realtor who had been looking after the house for the last years if the lawyer was to be believed. She had offered to put it on the market for them as soon as they could sell it.

They didn’t plan to stay long and Julie had to admit, she was glad. This next year was going to be a shit show no matter where they lived. She wasn’t planning on having a very active social life and at least here, she’d be spared the pitying glances of her teachers and classmates. Also, the counselor here knew nothing of her original plans for college. She’d be left alone.

Julie watched her dad get out of the car, checking in with her little brother who was still too emersed in his video game to realize what was going on. Looking back at the conversation the two adults had with each other, she sighed, before her eyes wandered to what lay behind them.

The gate was rusted, the plants that were visible over the edges of the stone wall obviously hadn’t been taken care of for a while now, if she compared them to the neighboring houses.

She could make out the top floor of the house peeking out between the trees. There was a little tower to the left, it’s top pointing skywards, a figurine adorning it. Julie squinted her eyes, trying to make out what it was.

This was not what she had imagined after looking at the pictures that had been attached to the letter. The mansion had looked beautiful, majestic even, sparkling windows and a massive lawn surrounding it. Whatever lay behind those walls seemed like a knock off. Would it really be worth spending an entire year here?

Ms Jenkins then opened the gate. Julie caught her eyes as her dad drove the car through it. She was sweating, eyes bouncing back to the house before immediately getting a strange look in them. If Julie didn’t know any better, she’d say Ms Jenkins looked like she’d seen a ghost.

The realtor stayed outside of the gate, the winged doors closing between them and if Julie thought that the house didn’t fit into the street before, she was convinced now.

Moving trucks were parked in front of it already but Julie barely saw them. Her eyes were drawn to the house itself.

It looked a little lost, the big windows empty and longing for light to shine from them again. She tried to imagine a younger version of her mom walking through the front door, realizing then and there that she’d never seen a picture of her mom when she’d been her age.

How had she never spotted the countless blanks when it came to her mother?

In that moment somebody stepped out of the front door, that actually looked a lot like her mom. A sharp pain burst through her heart, as the woman in yoga pants walked down the steps, heading straight for her dad.

“Ray.” Her voice was icy.

His shoulders slumping forward, head bent, he said, “Victoria.”

She had her sister’s eyes which right now reminded Julie of all the times their mom had caught them sneaking sweets into their rooms before dinner. 

Then they landed one them and Julie gasped.

It was like having Mom look at her, the anger transforming into something softer, worry and fear mixing in them and suddenly arms surrounded them, gripping them close.

Carlos’ face got smashed against her upper arm, his phone falling onto the gravel of the drive way. He squeaked, out of worry for his phone or because he couldn’t breathe, Julie wasn’t able to tell.

Their aunt let them go a second later.

Tears were glistening in her eyes. “Mijos, I’ve missed you so, so much!”

Julie frowned. She couldn’t remember a time when she had ever seen this woman before. Up close, the resemblance with her mother wasn’t as striking.

They both got their cheeks patted, something Carlos acknowledged grumpily and Julie bore with placate indifference.

“Come, I want you to meet my family!”

Julie’s brain screeched to a halt. When she had pictured moving into this house, it had always been just her, Carlos and Dad. The aunt had been an unwanted addition already, one more person to act okay around, to convince that she was fine.

Nobody had ever said anything about any more people.

“Your family?”

Thankfully her dad seemed as shocked as she was.

Their aunt raised an eyebrow at him, pursing her lips. It was in the way she held herself around him, the visible swallowing of the words on the tip of her tongue. She wanted to lash out, but a glance back at them, made her turn around and head back to the house.

Julie shouldered her backpack, touched Carlos’ shoulder gently, who quickly shook off her hand. He hurried to get two or three feet between them, following his aunt without looking up from his phone.

Falling into step next to her dad, Julie didn’t know what to say. They had never spoken a lot with each other in the last months but ever since that letter, every word felt that much heavier, harder to say.

“You okay, mija?”

The term of endearment caught Julie off-guard. She couldn’t remember when he had used it last.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, Dad.” She threw a smile in there, that seemed convincing enough.

Mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like, ‘at least one of us is’, they entered the house.

Julie took in their surroundings. Two winged staircase framed the entry hall, the railing a dark wooden with golden elements. There was a massive chandelier hanging from the ceiling above her, the crystals reflecting the sunlight into every direction, painting little rainbows on the walls.

Another rainbow caught her eyes, this one was printed on a shirt, though.

“Everybody, this is my beautiful wife Tonya and our daughter Flynn.”

The words echoed through the hall, almost deafening.

Julie looked at her aunt, then at the woman next to her. She was dark-skinned, her hair straight, reaching her chin and wearing jeans with flared legs and a comfy looking dark blue sweater. The girl next to her raised her chin defiantly, checking them out just as unabashedly.

She was as dark-skinned as one of her moms. Her hair was pulled back into a bun but it was styled into cornrows. The rainbow shirt belonged to her, paired with a jeans skirt and silvery shining leggings, she somehow pulled the outfit off. Julie blamed it on the confidence radiating off her in waves.

Self-consciously, she pulled her hoodie a little tighter, hugging herself.

“It’s so nice to finally meet you—” Tonya stepped forward, shaking their hands, “Tory has told us so much about you!”

Julie frowned. She couldn’t have told them much. She didn’t even know them, Julie couldn’t even remember her!

“Uh, likewise,” her dad finally breathed out, obviously just as taken aback by the entire situation as Julie was. “I’m Ray, this is Julie and Carlos.”

“It’s a tragedy that we meet under these circumstances.” Tonya’s pitying look was one of the worst she had to endure so far. “But I am sure, we’ll all get along just fine! Flynn actually is the same age as you, Julie. Isn’t that fantastic?”

Julie hummed, a polite smile on her lips as Flynn stepped up to them.

“Hi!” The other girl extended her hand and Julie took it, just now spotting the many friendship bracelets on Flynn’s wrist. She had never gotten one from her friends. They regarded each other with a look, that felt more like a scan to see if the other person was worth it. “Oh sweet, what are you playing?”

Carlos startled a little at Flynn’s enthusiasm but then showed her the level he was currently working on. Julie couldn’t help the feeling of being dismissed by the other girl.

“We already settled into the bedrooms on the right side but there is enough space for you on the left.” Their aunt waved her hand into the general vicinity of the upper floor.

Julie’s dad frowned. “And I see you already put all your things into the living room.”

Tonya laughed, a husky sound that Julie couldn’t help but be drawn to. It was warm and oddly familiar. “No, all the furniture was already here. The entire house has never been emptied apparently, apart from clothes and such. I even found some rotten raviolis in one of the cabinets.” She grimaced.

Julie’s heart skipped a beat. If everything had been left as it was, then maybe she’d find out more about her mom. Had she ever lived here? Stood right where Julie was standing right now? Maybe she’d get to sleep in her bed, too…

Luckily, the conversation in the entry hall didn’t last much longer and Julie was glad when they moved up the stairs. The right hallway was filled with unpacked boxes. Turning left, four doors led off the corridor. At the end of it was a spiral staircase, leading towards the top floor, presumably the little tower she’d spotted from outside.

The first room they stepped into was immediately claimed by Carlos. There was a mess on the desk, the posters on the walls were faded. Julie spotted the Eagles, Billy Joel and Green Day plus a few she had never heard of before. The shelves next to the bed were littered with little pieces of junk. A rock here, a glass filled with some sort of glitter there and Carlos inspected them closely.

They left him like this, checking the next room. It was just as spacious as her brother’s new one was. This one though, was neat, perfectly organized and her dad set down his suitcase at the foot of the bed. Before he could check if it was okay with her, she had left.

The last room’s door was right at the foot of the spiral stair case. A gust of wind messed with her curls as she opened it, stepping in carefully. Something about it drew her in immediately.

Maybe it was the shelves lined with books or the big poster of a mountain ridge during a sunset over the desk that pulled her in, but she moved through everything almost reverently.

The view from the window wasn’t bad either. She even spotted the pool and pool house behind a wall of plants that somehow reminded her of Sleeping Beauty’s vines protecting its slumber.

Turning back around, her eyes landed on the staircase in the hallway. She climbed it, stopping, when she realized there was a trap door at the top, a rusted padlock keeping it closed. Experimentally, she tugged at it but it wouldn’t budge.

“Don’t bother, I already tried.” Flynn’s voice made her jump. The other girl was leaning against the bannister at the bottom of the stairs.

Julie frowned down at her. “Aren’t you supposed to stay in your hallway?”

Holding up her hands, the dark-skinned girl took a step back. “Relax, I just wanted to give you this. I… I think it belonged to your mom.”

She placed something on the last step, giving Julie one last calculating look before disappearing down the hallway.

Feeling bad for snapping immediately, Julie wanted to call after her but then refrained when she saw what Flynn had left for her. It was a bracelet, woven out of different shades of purple-colored strings and in its middle sat a dahlia.

She blinked, trying to keep the tears at bay because Carlos or her dad could come out of their rooms at any time. Hurrying back into hers, she shut the door, leaning against it, breathing heavily.

Wiping away the tears, she pushed herself off. Dust had settled on the shelves and on one of them sat a ballerina figurine. Julie fingered it carefully, before placing the bracelet next to it.

Touching one of the petals she whispered, “So... you really did live here?”

Of course, nobody answered but she felt a shiver run down her spine. Pulling the hood over her hair, she rested her forehead on the shelf above, closing her eyes, breathing in the scent of old and musky books.

Why had she never known about this part of her mother’s life? What was so terrible about it that it had to be kept a secret? Her eyes landed on the black notebook peeking out of her backpack.

Determined, she started unpacking. She was going to find out the truth.

About what had happened in this house, why her mom had left it and her sister behind and never spoken about it again. And she was going to start with whatever was hidden on the floor above them.


	3. voices in the wind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you wonderful people for the support on this story! It means the world!
> 
> I love writing in this universe and I am so excited that you like it, too!!
> 
> Chapter title is from Radical Face's 'A Pound of Flesh'.
> 
> You can come hang out on [tumblr](http://serendipitee.tumblr.com/) or [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/lettering_labyrinth/) with me! I'd love to hear your predictions for this 😊
> 
> Have fun reading and feedback is always very much appreciated,  
> Bea x.

## VOICES IN THE WIND

_I hear your voices in the wind that cuts the night_  
_And I pray to whatever is listening, things’ll be all right_  


The rest of the weekend flew by and then it was Monday morning and Julie felt like throwing up. They were supposed to start at their new school today. Which she didn’t get. There were two weeks left before summer break. They couldn’t be that important.

She had slept in Carlos’ bed again after another round of nightmares. Her neck was all stiff when she woke up, her little brother snoring peacefully on her chest.

Julie smiled down at him, brushing a lock of hair out of his face. He could be really cute like this. When he was awake, he sometimes already drifted a little too close to puberty for her liking.

Slowly extracting herself from his embrace, she put her naked feet on the wooden floor. It was like dipping her toes into an ice-cold lake and she let out a hiss.

Weirdly enough, the floor boards were a lot warmer after she had taken two steps. Frowning, Julie walked back towards the bed again but the cold spot was gone.

It had happened to her a few times through-out the weekend. Especially in her room. A gust of wind, even though all the windows were closed, curtains drawn which didn’t move as it blew past her. A cold spot in the kitchen, right in front of the cabinet where they hid all the sweets from Carlos or on the couch, right next to her little brother when she settled down to play video games with him.

Playing those games was the only time she spent with Carlos apart from snuggling close at night. He barely talked to her otherwise and she hadn’t really seen their dad since they had moved in. Apparently, he had had a shoot that lasted both days.

It wasn’t uncommon but she wondered when he had booked it.

Setting up coffee in the kitchen, she enjoyed the quiet of the house around her. It was rare enough.

Tía Victoria and her family were loud people. Extremely loud and vibrant and cheery and Julie couldn’t stand them. They kept trying to engage them in their activities, like cooking together or playing board games but both, her and Carlos, had declined every time.

Apart from that moment, when Flynn had handed her the bracelet, they hadn’t talked alone anymore. Sure, the other girl had tried once or twice when they bumped into each other in the kitchen or living room but Julie had always blocked her off.

She didn’t know Flynn, didn’t know her aunt and right now she wanted to focus on other things.

The spiral staircase, for example. She still hadn’t managed to open the trap door. All weekend, she had waited to be alone in the house, so she could force it open using one of the tools from Tonya’s extensive toolbox. But somebody was always home.

It was rather frustrating.

The coffee machine gargled, hissing when the first drops ran through and Julie sighed at the sight of the black liquid.

“Morning, Julie.”

She looked up.

Of course, Tonya was the first joining her in the kitchen. She always was. The tall woman pulled out plates and mugs, setting them down on the kitchen island.

They worked side-by-side quietly, preparing breakfast together. This, this was the only time Julie could tolerate her. It was an unspoken agreement that neither of them talked before they both had their first cup of coffee. The routine, even if it was so far short lived, felt nice.

It was something that started to become familiar, in a situation that was so strange and forced that Julie found herself clinging to it in a way.

When they were done around seven, the rest of their families slowly trickled into the kitchen.

Her dad sat down, took his cup of coffee, head immediately disappearing inside his tablet.

Carlos was poking around in his eggs, pushing them from one side of the plate to the other. Julie frowned, taking a bite of her banana, watching her family ignore each other, while tía’s was talking quietly on the other side of the kitchen island.

“Hey, if you want, I can drive both of you to school,” offered Flynn just as Julie had finished her coffee.

Apparently, tía Victoria was on the schoolboard of her daughter’s school, so she had pulled a few strings, to get Julie into it and Carlos into one close-by.

She halted, waiting for her dad to step in but he never did. So, Julie forced a smile onto her face. “Sure, thanks.”

Showing up with Flynn was better than showing up alone.

Her cousin shot her a warm smile which Julie answered with a fake one before urging Carlos to finish breakfast and get ready.

\- - -

The drive to school was awkward. Flynn did her best to get a conversation going but neither Carlos nor Julie were in the mood for it. She didn’t even know why the other girl was trying so hard. Flynn sure as hell had a bunch of friends at school already. After all, she didn’t move halfway across the country, but only a district or two.

Los Feliz High School was exactly how Julie had pictured it. Overwhelmingly big, filled with strangers, all curios about the new girl starting in the middle of the semester. It was like a maze and even with Flynn by her side, Julie felt helplessly lost.

She pulled her snap back – she had found it in the bottom drawer of her closet – further into her face, shielding herself from the stares of her new classmates.

After an introduction to the principal, Flynn showed Julie her locker, waiting next to it patiently, while she opened it, putting her books inside.

“My mom tried to get us in as many of the same classes as possible, so… we can go to English together, if you want?” Flynn was looking at her and if Julie didn’t know any better, she’d have said, the other girl sounded almost hopeful.

“Uh… sure,” she shrugged.

“Flynn? Have you finally found someone that’s as helpless as you are when it comes to taste and class?” A high-pitched voice cut through the air and Flynn squeezed her eyes shut shortly, before turning away from Julie.

She followed her new housemate’s eyeline and found a perfectly manufactured princess. Everything about her screamed money and privilege. The clothes, the flawlessly manicured fingernails, the carefully crafted waves in her hair and the way a hush fell over the hallway, all eyes on them.

“Oh, fuck off, Wilson,” huffed Flynn, exasperation lacing her voice as she crossed her arms.

“No, not unless you introduce me to your new friend.”

Julie had seen so many like the girl in every school she had attended. It was stereotypical and a little scary but then again, that was high school summed up in a nutshell.

“This is Julie. She just moved from Pennsylvania.”

“Hi,” said Julie and it felt like she was introducing herself to the entire hallway.

The blonde girl in front of them, eyed her up and down critically, eyes getting caught on one of her mom’s old and faded band shirts, before reaching the snap back.

Apparently, she wasn’t worth a remark, because the princess turned to Flynn again. “So, heard you moved?”

Julie was a little taken aback at the question. Had she missed something? Was Flynn actually close to this girl?

“Yeah, um, we inherited a house in Pasadena from Julie’s mom, actually.”

And the truth was out. Not having to be the girl with the dead mom had lasted all of ten minutes. Julie wanted to hide somewhere, bending her head to escape the looks.

For a short moment a tense silence settled between the girls, before the blonde snapped a ‘toodles’ at them. She sashayed away from them, a group of girls following her and Julie raised an eyebrow, watching her leave.

“What the—”

“That’s Carrie Wilson, she…” Flynn heaved out a sigh. “Just stay out of her way.”

Julie hugged her books close to her chest, before looking back at her housemate. “I was planning on it.”

“So, English?” Flynn nodded into the direction Carrie had taken.

Squaring her shoulders, Julie sighed. She could do this. It was just school. She had been the new girl so many times before. This was no different.

Except, that when she entered the classroom with Flynn by her side, it definitely felt different. She felt a lot less alone and maybe having the other girl there, wasn’t so bad after all.

\- - -

When Flynn knocked on her door that evening, she let her in without a word. Her cousin had stuck to her side through-out the school day, feeding her the gossip necessary to survive in high school, giving her insights into teachers, like who to butter up for good grades, who to be cautious with. It was nice having somebody to help navigate her first day with.

But now, with Flynn standing in her room awkwardly, Julie wasn’t sure if what they had today could eventually lead to a friendship.

“I like the picture,” said Flynn, then, and in that moment, Julie knew that the other girl was just as trepidant about what the school day had meant as her.

“It was already here…”

Sitting down on the bed, patting the spot next to her, a sigh escaped Flynn’s lips as she sat down next to Julie.

“This is weird, right?” Eyes squinting, her cousin looked at her, tilting her head. Her cornrows fell like a curtain over her face.

Julie hugged her knees to her chest, humming in response. She wasn’t really sure, what Flynn was referring to. A lot of things felt weird at the moment. The strange house around them, the circumstances under which they had met.

Had they met as little kids, Julie was pretty sure, that her and Flynn would’ve hit it off right away. She sometimes reminded her of Olivia, a girl from kindergarten with her bubbly personality. They even shared the same copper skin tone.

“I asked my mom yesterday, why we never met.” Julie perked up. So, she wasn’t the only one wondering? “She wouldn’t tell.”

Frowning, she inched a little closer to Flynn. “My mom never mentioned tía. Or, or that she was married and had a kid.”

“Mom had one picture of you in her study but that was it. I never paid a lot of attention to it because she never talked about you. Like ever.” Flynn started playing with her friendship bracelets. “You should’ve seen her face when that letter arrived. I’ve never seen her so pale.”

Julie nodded. “My dad—he was completely out of it. Still is,” she added as an afterthought.

“But like, she _did_ live here, right?” Flynn turned, facing her completely. “I’m pretty sure, I got the room she lived in before… you know…”

Another nod. She had snuck into the other girl’s room yesterday during dinner. Even though Flynn’s things had already filled up the shelves and closet, it had felt like a punch to the gut, standing where her mom had stood all those years ago.

“Do you have like any clue with whom she might’ve lived with?”

“None. There’s—” She squinted her eyes, trying to figure out if she could trust Flynn. Opening the drawer of the nightstand, she pulled out the notebook. “I found this with her things.”

Flynn took the song book, flipping through the pages, her eyebrows furrowing.

“I tried to google the lyrics but there were like, no results. There are a few shortenings scribbled next to some of the lines.” She pointed to them. “A, R, B and L and I mean, she could be R but I never knew about her being in a band. Sure, we played together every day but nothing serious…”

And then she told her cousin about all the other things that didn’t make any sense. It felt so good to have somebody listen to her thoughts and doubts. Flynn was surprisingly patient, eyes trained on her, mouth pressed into a thin line.

“… it’s just all so… weird,” Julie ended, hiding her face in her hands.

A soft chuckle, a hand on her shoulder made her look up. “We’ll figure it out. There has to be an explanation to everything. We could start with the car. It has to be registered under a name—”

“We left it in Pennsylvania.” Suddenly, she felt stupid for not taking the car with her.

But Flynn waved it off, already onto a new idea. “We can interview the neighbors. Maybe one of them has to know something!”

They formed a plan in great detail, already coming up with the wildest theories and by the time, they were done, they started talking about completely different topics.

After that it wasn’t hard to fall into a friendship with Flynn. They liked the same music, liked the same memes and jokes and sometimes it was a little scary how well Flynn already knew her.

At first, it had felt weird, sharing stories about her mother with the other girl. She had never done it before, never gotten close enough to her school friends to talk with them about the sickness, the process of dying.

Flynn held her through the tears, wiped them away with a sad smile and knew exactly how to cheer her up. Sometimes it was a simple phrase, other times a tub of ice cream and every now and then, she’d stroke Julie’s hair until she fell asleep.

By being friends with Flynn, she finally got to see a picture of her mom when she was her age. Her cousin had unearthed an old picture of the two sisters when she cleared out the desk in her room.

It had been taken on the beach, the sun setting at the horizon. There were shadows visible on the lower edges, people that had stood behind the camera. It was a grainy picture, having been taking in 1993 if the time stamp was to believed but it was unmistakably their mothers.

\- - -

It was almost a week later when they finally had the entire house to themselves, to get to the next step in their plan. The first one, of interviewing the neighbors had failed quite miserably. None of them were very forthcoming, most of them had only lived in their houses for a few years. The neighbor to their left hadn’t even opened his door.

But today, Dad was once again off with work, tía was at Pilates and Tonya had offered to drive Carlos to baseball try-outs at their local team.

Julie couldn’t believe it, when the door clicked close behind them, turning back to her cousin with a knowing grin on her face. Together they sprinted up the stairs.

Flynn pulled out the toolbox underneath their bathroom’s cabinet and Julie leaned against the doorframe, watching her friend rummage through it.

“Do you even know what you’re looking for?”

“Oh, believe me, Mom made sure, I could name everything in here before I started school.” A moment later, Flynn pulled out something that looked like a gigantic nail clipper triumphantly. “There it is.”

Julie stepped forward, eyeing the tool and was about to say something, when the door behind them closed with a loud bang.

Both of them jumped, a scream might’ve ripped from Flynn’s throat and Julie’s heart was beating rapidly in her chest.

“What the hell?”, breathed out Flynn, reaching for the doorknob. She tried opening the door but it wouldn’t budge. Waving Julie closer, they both pushed against it. Without any luck. “It can’t be stuck, right?”

Julie shook her head. In the back of her mind a half-formed thought tried to push to the forefront but she ignored it in favor of squinting through the keyhole. “There’s nothing outside.”

Suddenly a gust of wind blew directly into her face and she could’ve sworn, she heard somebody giggling. Straightening quickly, she frowned at Flynn but her friend’s face was impassive, staring right back at her. “Did you just giggle?”

“What—no! Let me see.” Flynn pushed Julie away, leaning down as well.

She watched her carefully for any sign of wind or giggling but there was nothing.

“This is so weird…”, hummed the other girl, trying the doorknob again and almost landing face first on the hallway’s floor because the door gave out, opening easily.

This time, the laughter was a cackle and it was right there. Julie stared at the spot it had come from. There was nothing to be seen, just air. She frowned.

“That’s not funny, Jules,” huffed Flynn, rightening herself and dusting off her knees.

“I didn’t do anything,” protested Julie, crossing her arms.

Her friend frowned, eyeing the hallway up and down. Then she leaned close to Julie. “Do you think somebody’s here? Like a robber or home invader or something?”

Or something… Again, the half-formed thought tried to be finished but Julie refused.

“No, it’s probably just an old house, you know? Let’s try breaking that lock, huh?” She stepped out of the bathroom, glad to get out of there.

Flynn turned back, stopped. “Do you have the nipper?”

“Do I have the _what_?” Julie frowned.

“The nipper. I placed it on the cabinet before I bent down…” Her voice trailed off and she started spinning around herself, looking for the tool.

Inching closer, watching the door carefully, so it wouldn’t lock them in again, Julie inspected the bathroom. No sign of the gigantic nail clipper. “It probably has slipped behind the cabinet,” she suggested.

“No, no way. I put it right there.” Flynn pointed at a spot at the corner of the cabinet, her eyes scanning the room almost manically. “Mom is gonna kill me.”

Julie threw an arm around her shoulder. “She’ll probably won’t even realize it’s gone. How often does she use it anyway?”

Flynn sighed. “More often than you think. We haven’t had a plumber or electrician in our house for years! But whatever, I need ice cream after going through whatever this was.”

Laughing, she tugged Julie towards the stairs leading to the first floor. Something in her periphery tried to catch her attention, but when she turned her head to look at the spiral stair case there was nothing there.

Was she going crazy? Was this a sign of sleep deprivation? Because she hadn’t slept well, the nightmares getting stronger and the naps with Flynn not enough, she knew that.

But there was something about this house, that just didn’t make sense.

Flynn distracted her quickly by doing an impression of Ms Truman, their History teacher that was so spot on, that Julie had tears in her eyes by the time tía Victoria found them in the kitchen, a small smile on her face.

\- - -

The next day, Tonya placed the toolbox on the dining room table during Sunday morning breakfast. It landed on the wood with a loud bang, the metal scraping over the surface for a moment.

“Okay, folks,” she said, waiting until she had their full attention.

Carlos was munching loudly on his cereal, stopping when all eyes landed on him. “Sorry,” he mumbled, the spoon falling into the bowl, a loud clanking sound echoing through the room.

“We are tackling the pool house today.” Tonya seemed determined.

Julie’s dad was already opening his mouth to protest, but she shot him down quickly.

“All of us, no excuses! It’s high time we got some bonding done.” She crossed her arms.

Flynn raised an eyebrow at her mother before looking at Julie, rolling her eyes dramatically.

Julie tried to play along, but it was tough to pretend, she wasn’t thankful to Tonya for keeping her dad at home today. This would be the first time they actually hung out, not counting breakfast in the mornings.

Spirits were high as they changed into their oldest clothes. They subsided a little when they stopped in front of the wall of vines, thorns staring them down dangerously and Julie sighed. This was so not going to be fun.

Tonya each gave them something to do, handing out tools and gloves and Flynn and Julie both stopped short when she gave the nipper, that had disappeared yesterday, to Carlos. 

“How—“, breathed out Flynn, but got no answer, instead the barrow was pushed into her hands and her mom sent her away with the first bunch of vines, they had cut.

It took them all morning to get through the thick wall of plants. Which, according to Tonya, was impossible. Then again, things kept disappearing or toppling over, distracting them from the work at hand again and again.

The adults blamed Carlos and them very quickly, which was ridiculous. They all wanted to get this done as soon as possible. Flynn and her were already dreaming about lounging by the pool during summer break and Carlos couldn’t wait to get back to his YouTube videos, so honestly, it wasn’t them.

Just like yesterday, Julie got the itch of a doubt. This time, she tried to grasp it but it kept slipping through her fingers, probably because things kept getting thrust at her.

Tonya kept them all busy until it was shortly after eleven and they were actually done. There was a clear path through the plants and Julie was just as surprised as everybody else, that they were standing in front of an archway, branches climbing up at the sides and shielding them from the sun above them.

It looked beautiful and she couldn’t imagine how it’d look when the roses started blooming for real.

“Wow,” breathed out Flynn next to her.

Tía Victoria nodded along with her daughter, her hand slipping into her wife’s as Tonya led them towards the pool house.

They were all quiet, stepping forward slowly. Julie gravitated to her dad’s side just like Carlos. He had been awfully quiet all morning, even more so than normal.

Every strange thing that had happened in the last hours, he had always only commented with a squint of his eyes, purse of his lips. It was like he knew something, they all didn’t and Julie was hell bent to find out what.

She’d not let another parent keep secrets from her.

The pool house was locked, blinds and curtains drawn and while they all looked for a key, Tonya had already picked the lock.

Julie kept getting surprised by her. She slowly morphed into one of her favorite people. It was really hard not to like her, with her positive and no-shit-attitude. Flynn had inherited a lot of her mom’s greatest traits. Their laugh was the same, she got her love for ice cream from tía and Julie couldn’t help but wonder, if people had ever realized the similarities between herself and her mother.

Had they acknowledged, that she had not only gotten her mother’s musical talent but also her love for peanut butter? And the little mole on her left shoulder? The way they both spent hours crafting jewelry or accessorized their clothes?

Inside the pool house was dark, only slits of light falling through the blinds, the dust twirling in them like magical fairy dust.

A click, then nothing. The electricity must’ve been shut off or some wiring be faulty, at least that was the mumble that left Tonya’s mouth.

Flynn was the one, pulling out her phone, turning on the flashlight. Then they all gasped.

The pool house was furnished just like the rest of the mansion but this, this was different. They had stepped right into a music room. There were instruments everywhere, guitars lining the walls, acoustic and electric, just as many bass guitars opposite of them. In the middle sat a drum set, the cymbals reflecting Flynn’s flashlight.

The cone of light of Carlos’ phone joined Flynn’s and while everybody was still overwhelmed with the instruments, Julie spotted a black notebook, opened on the table in front of a comfy looking couch. A similar one was hiding in the drawer of her night stand.

She inched closer, wanting to see if the handwriting matched, when the first set of blinds was drawn, light flooding the room.

Gasps fell from all their lips and Julie turned back around to her family. There weren’t only instruments. The room looked more lived in than the house had. Shoes were lying around the floor, shirts on the chairs and couch.

And then her gaze landed on the grand piano behind the drum set. It was beautiful, calling her name quietly and, drowning out tía’s disgusted cheers at the unwashed clothes and Carlos’ excitement about the mess, she stepped closer.

Navigating around the drum set, she had almost reached it, when her dad said, “I—I forgot, I have a job. I need to go.”

He practically fled the pool house, leaving them all in a stunned silence, Tonya and tía Victoria sharing a glance, that Julie was too mad to interpret.

Her dad couldn’t even stand being with them for a half a day. It was getting ridiculous. The piano forgotten, she followed him outside. 

Running through the archway, she caught up with at his car, slamming the door shut before he could get in.

“No,” she breathed out heavily, “you are not leaving again.”

He was blinking rapidly, his eyes glistening and Julie realized, stunned, that he was close to crying. She took a step back, hands leaving the car door.

Taking a deep breath, her heart was thumping hard against her ribcage. “You can’t leave us, too.”

It was way closer to the truth, the fears she had tried to push away in favor of being there for her little brother, than she had planned on revealing.

“Oh, mija!” Suddenly, she was wrapped in his arms and Julie couldn’t remember the last time, he had hugged her, so she buried her face against his chest, breathing in the scent that was so achingly familiar.

It took her a beat to realize she was crying, sobbing, gripping her dad’s shirt tightly.

“I’m so sorry, mija, I’m sorry, but I have to go…”

He extricated himself from Julie’s grip. Had Julie been able to see through her tears, she’d have realize his cheeks were wet as well.

“Papi, no, please don’t leave!” Her voice was wrecked with sobs, trying to regulate her breathing, nails biting in the flesh of her hands.

“There’s some things I have to do and—”

“No, you can’t leave, Dad!” The resentment seeped back into her bones, pushing away the feeling of warmth and safety she’d felt during the hug.

He didn’t say anything else, just gently pushing her away before getting into the car. Julie was watching him leave, trying to keep herself from crying anymore, because this, this wasn’t worth it.

She steeled herself, swallowing down the hurt and turned around.

A boy she didn’t know stared at her from the corner of the house, strands of black hair falling into his eyes and his fingers rubbing against each other. When he realized, she had caught him staring, his eyes grew the size of saucers.

“Hey!”, she called out, glad to distract herself. “How’d you get in here?”

He gaped, his mouth opening and closing again and again.

Julie started to make her way towards him which seemed to get him out of his stupor. With a yelp, he disappeared out of sight. She followed him quickly. Rounding the corner, she stopped.

He was gone.


	4. names

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all your feedback!🥰  
> I am very sorry for taking so long with the new update but I wanted to finish my other WIP first before diving deeper into this. This chapter was so hard to write because I changed the course of where it goes three or four times 🙈
> 
> And because I like torturing myself I added a little artwork at the end, which took me forever, but I am actually very happy with how it turned out.
> 
> You can come hang out with me on [tumblr](http://serendipitee.tumblr.com/) or [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/lettering_labyrinth/).
> 
> Have fun reading and feedback is always greatly appreciated!  
> Bea x.

## NAMES

_none of the faces look the same_  
_and not a one knows my name_  
_oh, I am a long way from home_  


The face of the boy didn’t leave Julie’s mind.

When she got back to the pool house, they had already started cleaning it up. Armed with cleaning rags and agents, tía and Tonya were throwing the clothes into huge trash bags. Carlos had joined Flynn in dusting off the instruments.

Julie looked for the notebook again, wanting to take it with her, but it was gone. Nobody had seen it either and slowly she was beginning to think she had imagined it being there in the first place.

By the time, the sun was setting, the pool house sparkled just like the water of the pool, reflecting the fairy lights they had put up in the twines of the archway. 

Julie couldn’t really admire the beauty, though, the boy was still at the forefront of her mind.

How had he gotten in here? She wanted to ask Flynn if she’d ever seen him before but so far, they didn’t have a moment alone.

To her absolute surprise, her dad came back for dinner, arms full of pizzas for all of them. He even joined their conversations as they settled down in the dining room.

Julie eyed him out of her corner of her eyes. Strangely enough, he seemed calmer, a little less agitated, as if some pressure had been released. She wondered what he had done all afternoon.

After spending the rest of the evening with watching episodes of ‘Full House’ – which hit a little close to home every now and then – Julie and Flynn only got to talk about how to get everybody out of the house, so they could give the trap door another try. They were brushing their teeth during it, mouths filled with toothpaste. It all ended in a little towel fight when Flynn sprayed some of the pink foam directly into Julie’s face. She swore it was an accident, but the towel hit her thighs anyways.

It was shortly after midnight, when all the lights were turned off, the house falling silent.

She tried to sleep, she really did, but her mind kept going back to the boy. He had looked sad, his dark eyes following her dad outside the gate. If she didn’t think about him, then her brain was directing her towards the instruments in the pool house. After Carlos and Flynn had dusted them off, they had looked as good as new.

They had packed up the piano from Pennsylvania, Julie had insisted on it but it hadn’t arrived in L.A., yet. And compared to the grand piano in the pool house, theirs was a cheap knock-off. And old, and out of tune.

So, her fingers itched.

Finally giving up, Julie swung her feet out of bed. She slipped into the over-sized sweater hanging over the desk chair. With her feet in the huge monster slippers, she and Flynn had found during one of their ice cream runs at the local mall, she tiptoed down the corridor.

She was directly in front of her dad’s room, when she stepped on a floorboard that creaked terribly. Julie froze, holding her breath. For a moment, she thought, she was safe, then the light turned on in the room behind the door.

“Julie?” Her dad blinked.

“Uh…” She tried to come up with something, anything, but her mind was completely blank, apart from a boy’s sad face and a beautiful piano.

He sighed, stepping out into the hallway. “Couldn’t sleep either, huh?”

Quickly, she nodded and when he put an arm around her shoulders, Julie couldn’t help the sigh escaping her lips. He felt warm and safe, just like his embrace from this afternoon.

“How about we get some leche con miel?”

Her heart ached at the mention of her mom’s cure-all for nightmares, bad grades and everything in between. She nodded and they walked into the kitchen together.

Julie sat down at the counter, fingering the sleeves of her sweater while watching her dad heat up the milk on the stove. They didn’t talk, but for the first time in a while the silence between them didn’t feel heavy.

Setting down two cups in front of her, her dad sat down next to her. “I’m sorry for today, mija, and all the other days, too.”

She took a sip, the hot liquid burning her tongue. To her amazement, it tasted almost like her mother’s.

Meanwhile, her dad continued, “It’s… I’ve been trying to find out more about Rose’s will. The lawyer was a dead end, there are no records of her ever buying this house and it’s been driving me insane.”

A heavy sigh filled the kitchen and Julie watched her father carefully. His eyes stared at a spot somewhere on the cabinets opposite of them, mind obviously far away. She had known, that it bothered him just as much as her, that her mom had concealed such a big part of her past.

“But… seeing the grand piano today, knowing she has played on it when she lived here, it’s—” another sigh “She must’ve been happy, right?”

Julie blinked back the tears when he looked at her. Nodding, she smiled. He was right. Her mom would’ve loved the instrument, the garden, the archway and her old room which was now Flynn’s, with the little dahlias on the wallpaper on one side of it and the soft, purple carpet.

“So, we should try being happy here, too.” He answered her smile. “And if I continue looking for answers, then… I know, I haven’t been the best dad for you and Carlos in the last months and I really want to make it better.”

Before he could say any more, Julie had leaned over, hugging him tightly. “Te amo, papí,” she whispered.

He kissed the crown of her head, resting his cheek on her curls. They emptied their mugs in comfortable silence and even though Julie knew that not everything would change overnight, she felt closer to her dad than she had in a long time.

They went back to bed about half an hour later, hugging tightly on top of the stairs again. Julie stopped at her door, watching her dad disappear. She counted to twenty slowly, before sneaking back.

This time as she reached the creaky floorboard in front of her dad’s room, she stepped over it, before making her way down the stairs.

Outside, it was still warm.

Californian nights were so different from everything she was used to. She didn’t even shiver as she hurried over the lawn towards the archway, they had found earlier today.

Her eyes flickered to the left. Light streamed from a window on the upper floor, illuminating their garden a little. Julie locked away the piece of information. They would have to try to interview their left-side neighbor again tomorrow.

The pool house’ door squeaked dangerously loud as she opened it. Wincing, she quickly stepped inside, letting it fall close behind her.

Julie frowned.

She could’ve sworn that they had thrown out all the shirts, but there was another one right there on the couch. Picking it up, she eyed it critically. Obviously, someone had an aversion to sleeves, because they had been cut off on this one as well. Her and Flynn had joked about it all afternoon.

By the way, she was pretty sure, they had thrown out a shirt exactly like the one she was holding. Julie remembered dimly, thinking that the owner’s taste in music couldn’t have been half bad. She had assigned Carlos’ room to him.

A gust of wind playing with her curls, distracted her thoughts. Dropping the shirt, she turned back to the grand piano.

Her feet found their way through the room, evading the other instruments until they had reached their destination. Julie extended her hand, touching the corpus almost reverently. The black wood was reflecting her flashlight and she breathed in deeply, before rounding it, so she was facing the keys.

They were calling out to her, fingers answering.

Julie put down her phone, letting the light illuminate the ceiling and sat down in front of the piano.

She could almost picture her mom the first time she had shown her how to play. The way, she had taken Julie’s small hands into hers, guiding them over the keys while Julie had laughed with glee, wiggling on her lap excitedly.

Smiling, Julie placed her fingers on the keys.

A second later the lid came crashing down.

Letting out a scream, Julie could barely pull her hands back, the thud echoing through the night. She jumped up from the seat, staring at the piano, heart trying to jump out of her ribcage.

The curtains moved at the windows, a shiver ran down her spine and without another thought, she rushed out of the pool house, only slowing down once she had reached the sanctuary of her room.

\- - -

“Maybe your sleeve got caught in it or something…” Flynn was pushing open their school’s front door.

Julie had retold her night’s adventure on the drive over, waiting all morning for Flynn and her to finally be alone. She had barely slept the rest of the night, eyes fixed on the pool house as she had sat on her bed. Nothing had moved in there and she had fallen into an exhausted slumber around five.

“No, no, that’s not what happened,” she disagreed. They headed for the lockers, weaving their way through the students. “It’s just… don’t you think it’s strange, the things happening in the house?”

Flynn raised her eyebrows. “Like what?”

Julie stopped in the middle of the hallway, staring. A freshman bumped into her forcefully, cursing at her and shouldering past them.

Her cousin yelled an insult after him before turning back to her.

“Like what?” Julie echoed. “Haven’t you noticed the cold spots? The nipper? The bathroom door? The constant wind when there’s no window open?”

Flynn scoffed. “It’s an old house. The insulation can’t be that good. And the nipper probably just fell off the cabinet, the shirt, we could’ve totally missed it, it’s not that much of a stretch.”

“And the boy?”

“What boy?” Her friend frowned.

Julie realized she hadn’t mentioned him yet. Quickly she filled Flynn in. They had reached their lockers in the meantime, taking out their books.

“That is… weird.”

“Duh!” Julie shut her locker a little too loud, the guy next to her wincing. She apologized hurriedly.

“But, he could’ve climbed over the wall. Maybe he’s one of our neighbors. Was he cute?”

They started their way down the corridor. “He mostly looked scared and I was crying. Sorry for not paying attention to his cuteness. I’ll check him out for you next time.”

Flynn started laughing. “That’s not necessary.” She gave Julie a side-ways glance, then she added, “More interested in girls, you know.”

There was a forced nonchalance to Flynn’s shrug that Julie spotted immediately. She was honored, that her cousin trusted her like this, wiggling her eyebrows. “I’ll look out for cute girls for you, then,” she said as they entered the labs.

The relief on her friend’s face was visible as they sat down. “So, what is your theory with the house?”

Julie took her time, placing her pencil case at the top of the table. She looked left and right before she whispered. “Ghosts?”

Flynn blinked. “Ghosts?!”

Shrugging, she nibbled at her fingers. “Carlos has been watching a bunch of YouTube videos on them after mom died. It’s… it’s a nice thought, right? Her being still there somehow?”

A sad smile appeared on her friend’s lips. “Oh, Jules—”

The rest of her response was cut short, though, because Carrie entered the classroom. Loudly. Everything Carrie did was loud, Julie had learnt that pretty quickly, so it wasn’t a surprise. What shocked the class, was the anger in her voice.

It was directed at the boy trailing behind her. Nick, her boyfriend.

Julie thought, he was pretty cute, with his shaggy hair and freckles. He seemed nice enough, too. Definitely too nice for the icy princess from what she had witnessed in the past week.

“You promised we could do the party at your house!” Carrie was dropping her bag at her desk in the front row, pouting at the boy.

Nick sighed, obviously uncomfortable with the attention of their entire class on them. “I’m sorry, babe, but I can’t change my dad’s filming schedule.”

Kayla, one of Carrie’s entourage, shot out of her seat. “Does this mean there’s not going to be a school’s out party?”

Murmurs rose throughout the classroom. Julie raised her eyebrows at Flynn but there was a determined furrow between her cousin’s eyes and maybe she should’ve guessed what happened next.

Flynn stood up. “Party at our house, then.”

She levelled Carrie with a triumphant stare. The blonde was opening and closing her mouth to protest but the rest of their class already cheered, reaching for their phones to inform the rest of the school.

Julie didn’t want to ruin her friend’s moment by reminding her that they had three parents at home themselves. She knew, something had happened between Carrie and Flynn. Her cousin hadn’t shared the whole truth, just bits of information here and there.

They had spent a lot of time in kindergarten together, had had a fall-out at thirteen but Flynn wouldn’t elaborate about what exactly.

Mrs Becker cut any upcoming discussions short by entering the classroom. As she started her lesson about acids and their pH value, Julie leant over to Flynn.

“Are you sure, you know what you’re doing?”, she whispered, careful to not draw Carrie’s attention towards them.

Flynn waved her off. “It’s gonna be fine…”

Julie somehow doubted that but she didn’t pressure her friend on it.

The rest of the day was spent with answering questions about the upcoming party they were throwing at their house. Julie just made sure to let the other girl do all the talking.

\- - -

It was a little after midnight when she leaves her room that night. The theory of ghosts had been haunting her thoughts for the entire day. The pun was clearly intended and she giggled at her own silliness as she stepped out onto the grass.

Pulling the cardigan tighter around herself, she quickly made her way over the lawn. A soft wind was rustling the leaves of the archway, the fairy lights swinging through the air.

Her heart was unnaturally calm for the fact that she wanted to prove her thesis of actual ghosts living in the pool house.

While Flynn had been working on their presentation for physics, which wasn’t really her strongest subject, Julie had spent the afternoon clicking on the most ridiculous articles and threads. She had lost count of how many reddit posts she had read, one more absurd than the last.

Flynn had caught her once, giving her a sympathetic smile and then gone back to her power point slides.

Julie knew that it sounded stupid, and like she wanted to hold on to the possibility of her mom actually still being out there, but was it so wrong? After all she had managed to get them all to live in this house after she was gone. Who knew what else she had come up with?

And since the trap door still hadn’t opened itself miraculously, Julie had to find another way to unearth more information about her mother’s past.

Her dad had said it yesterday. She had probably been pretty happy at the pool house, while she lived here. So why not start there?

There was just no way she was going anywhere close to the piano tonight, though. She valued her fingertips too much for that. 

Once again, the door creaked obnoxiously loud. They should probably oil it. Julie was sure, that Tonya knew a thing or two about that.

Turning on her flashlight, she ventured into the room. The shirt was gone again, the lid of the piano opened. She frowned, nibbling at her thumb as she stepped closer to the guitars.

They were beautiful. All in different styles, Western, Concert, electrics and one or two really old ones, that Julie marveled over. She didn’t dare touch them, though. Something was holding her back, an air around them, that felt impenetrable. 

Stepping away, she made her way to one of the cupboards at the back. Tía had talked about getting plants for them, filling the backspace of the pool house with an indoor jungle. She obviously had a green thumb, something none of her family had been gifted with.

Her mom had once killed a bunch of succulents. One had been overwatered, the other one dried up and nobody knew what had happened to the last. They had all disappeared over night.

The cupboards were empty, just like they had been when they had discovered the pool house and the music room it housed.

Julie stepped up nonetheless, inspecting them for engravings or other signs of who had lived here. She was curios about which characters her mother had shared her life with. They seemed like an interesting group of people if their bedrooms were anything to go by. Maybe they were still alive somewhere and could fill in the gaps and answer all the question Julie had about her mom.

She was just about to turn around, take another look at the piano, when a white spot caught her eye. It was halfway hidden underneath the leg of one of the cupboard, only peeking out.

Crouching down, she shone her flashlight at it. Her heartbeat picked up. It looked like the backside of a polaroid and there were words scribbled on it. She could at least make out the first two letters of each line.

Hastily, Julie put her cellphone on top of the lowest shelf. She grabbed the leg, hoped that it wouldn’t be too heavy. Carefully, she lifted it, her foot stepping onto the picture and dragging it out from under the cupboard before she lowered it a little more loudly than she had anticipated.

“What are you doing?”

Carlos’ voice made her jump. She might’ve let out another scream but brushed her hair back with faked nonchalance as she turned to her brother. Her foot stayed firmly on her discovery.

“Nothing,” she rushed out, wincing when she realized that wasn’t the most convincing answer.

Of course, her little brother simply raised his eyebrow in response, crossing his arms. “I can tell Dad, you know.”

Julie huffed. “Fine, but you aren’t supposed to be out here either. Isn’t it way past your bedtime?”

He dropped his gaze, shuffled his feet and when he looked back up, Julie’s heart broke. “Couldn’t sleep,” he admitted. He let out a heavy sigh. “I went looking for you, because you know how you get those nightmares and need me to protect you?”

She chuckled lightly, nodding along, her heart going out to him. Right now, he didn’t look like a prepubescent teenager. He was still only a boy who had lost his mom way too early in life.

“I just need to tie my shoe and then we can go to bed, so you can fulfill your brotherly duties.” She grinned at him, before bending down. Quickly, she slipped the polaroid into her cardigan’s pocket.

If Carlos realized that she was actually wearing her monster slippers again, he didn't comment on it.

\- - -

Carlos fell asleep pretty quickly as soon as they got into bed. He was snoring lightly, brows furrowed as he started dreaming.

Julie watched him sleep, arms wound tightly around his little body.

The nightmares had gotten less since they had moved here which she attributed to the new environment giving his subconscious something else to worry about it. It would get worse again, too, of that she was sure. Grieving wasn’t a linear process. She had read enough about it to figure out how to help her little brother and father to know.

There were days when he’d lash out, days when he’d not feel like getting up and days when he’d be his normal cheerful self. She knew all this.

It didn’t make spotting the same signs in her own behavior any easier. That was still something she kept close to the heart. Only Flynn had really seen her cry since they had moved here, and she meant to keep it that way.

Making sure, that Carlos had fallen deep enough into his dreams, Julie carefully extracted the picture from her cardigan.

Her heart jumped in her chest, beating so loudly that she was afraid to wake her little brother for a moment. But he just snored, turned around and settled deeper into her pillows.

Julie let out a sigh before she focused back on the photograph.

This time, her heart went insane. Because right there was her mom. It must’ve been taken the same day, her and tía had taken the picture Flynn had found as she was wearing the exact same outfit; a blue bikini top with little white butterflies.

Yet, what intrigued Julie even more, where the four boys flanking her mother. They were all grinning in the camera toothily, two on each side of her. The quality wasn’t good enough to make out any clear features but they seemed very comfortable with each other, arms around their shoulders and standing so close.

Like a family, her mind supplied.

With shaking fingers, Julie dared to turn around the photograph.

In a neat but blocky handwriting somebody had written Reggie, Bobby, Rose, Luke, Alex right in the center of the back. The bottom left corner was adorned with a June ’93.

Her finger moved over the words, the names carefully. She knew the names of her mother’s roommates now. This must’ve been them. Four boys, four additional bedrooms. She wondered who hers had belonged to.

Another puzzle piece clicking into place, the instruments in the pool house must’ve been theirs, too.

Turning the picture back around, she examined their clothes a little closer. The one on her mom’s right – Luke, she checked on the back, was wearing a shirt with no sleeves.

She furrowed her brows. The sleeveless shirts they had found, were they his?

Julie flipped the picture back around. Quietly, she tried out the names, whispered them into the dark room.

Nothing happened.

She almost felt disappointed. So, no ghosts, probably. They could be summoned with their names, right? She was pretty sure she had read that somewhere this afternoon.

Carlos was shifting next to her and Julie blinked. She checked the time. It was close to two in the morning and she had school the next day.

Even though all she wanted was to get up, go to Flynn’s and talk about the picture in excruciating detail, analyze every little bit of it. She didn’t, instead putting the picture into the black notebook in her nightstand. It’d be safe there.

Settling down into bed, she let out a sigh.

Alex, Bobby, Luke and Reggie.

Julie felt like having taken a huge step into finding out more about her mom even though she had no idea who those guys were. Still, it calmed her. She was finally making progress and tomorrow, tomorrow she and Flynn would try to convince their parents to let them have a party in the pool house on Friday.

Sighing, she closed her eyes.

“Alex, Bobby, Luke and Reggie,” she breathed out one last time before falling asleep.

In her dreams, she could’ve sworn she heard somebody answer, “Tell your friends.”

\- - -


	5. all this time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the feedback on the last chapter! It means a lot!
> 
> I have to say a huge thank you to Ayra who helped with wrapping up this one, since I was so indecisive on where to cut it. This chapter was so much fun to write, since we are finally getting deeper into the story and I am so excited! The title is once again from Radical Face, the song's called 'Nightclothes'.
> 
> Feedback is always greatly and in whichever form appreciated 💜  
> Also, I love hearing your theories!  
> I really hope, you'll like it and have a lot of fun reading this!
> 
> You can find me on [tumblr](http://serendipitee.tumblr.com/) or [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/lettering_labyrinth/).
> 
> Bea x.

## ALL THIS TIME

_'cause in my head_  
_you're still alive, you're still alive_  
_and I know that it's a lie_  
_but it's one I like, it's one I like_  


The next day at school was pretty much the same as the day before. Flynn answered questions about the upcoming party at their house with practiced ease by now, handing out invitations left and right. With every new one, Julie grew even more agitated about the whole thing.

They still hadn’t talked to their parents about it and today was already Wednesday. She wasn’t fully clear on what exactly Flynn’s plan was.

By now, she slowly started to doubt that the other girl even had a plan.

It was hard to stay positive, when Carrie kept throwing remarks at them, hints about how their party would suck, be a total flake. But Flynn always bit back with some retort, until the two girls would stare at each other, faces inches apart and Julie would lock eyes with Kayla, before rolling them.

She had so quickly gotten used to Carrie and Flynn butting heads every day at school; oftentimes it was about the most ridiculous things, too.

It was unnerving but also gave her time to compare her Math homework with Kayla’s on the daily, since the other girl was a mathematical genius. And Carrie and Flynn were too busy starring each other down that they realized what was happening behind their backs.

“We have to ask them today,” said Julie as they got into Flynn’s car.

According to the e-mail from the company, her mom’s old Toyota was supposed to arrive tomorrow. She doubted, she’d use it, though. Honestly, Flynn’s car was much nicer and they hadn’t had to drive it to the shop even once since they got here.

“We will.” Flynn’s voice was brimming with confidence just like it had the last two days when she chickened out during dinner every time.

Julie sighed. “No, Flynn, we really have to ask them!”

Rolling her eyes, her cousin started the engine. “We could also just get them out of the house for whatever.”

Raising an eyebrow, Julie scoffed. “No. I’m not lying to my dad. We’ve just started to grow closer again.”

They had even made plans to go to the beach together this weekend. Just the three of them. It’d be the first time since arriving in L.A. and Julie was already looking forward to it.

Flynn sighed. “Okay, fine, have it your way!”

“Thank you.”

Julie turned the music up, humming along to the radio. She had slowly gotten into listening to music again, mostly thanks to Flynn. It wasn’t at all the kind of songs she had listened to before, or worked on with her mom but at least it was something.

This morning, her dad had caught her under the shower, belting out Nicki Minaj. His smile had been blinding.

It was a good song, too, with a strong beat and solid lyrics. The guitar was almost electrifying and she cranked up the volume.

“Ugh, no,” Flynn turned it down a moment later. “We are not jamming along to Carrie’s dad.”

Julie frowned. “Carrie’s dad?”

“Well, yeah, Trevor Wilson, that’s him.” She pointed at the radio.

‘GET LOST by Trevor Wilson’ stood there in block letters and Julie blinked. “Never heard of him,” she answered.

The car swerved as Flynn whipped her head towards her. Behind them a loud honk made them both jump in their seats. The driver’s face was a violent shade of red as he passed and the way he raised his fist at them, didn’t let them believe that he was yelling anything nice.

“You’ve never heard of Trevor Wilson?” Flynn tried to focus on the road now, their heart beats still at a high, but her eyes kept flitting back to Julie.

She racked her brain, trying to remember if she had ever heard of him before. “No, no I don’t think so. Is he new?”

Her cousin burst into laughter. “New? He’s old! Like forty-something! He was famous in the late 90’s to early 2000s and a really big deal back then. I never really liked his music but he _is_ Carrie’s dad, so, I grew up with it.” Flynn shrugged while Julie filed the information into her Flynn-Carrie-fall-out-file. “His latest stuff hasn’t been as great, but honestly, he’s set for life. Their house is huge.”

Julie shook her head slowly. “No, I honestly haven’t heard of him. Which is weird… Mom was all about that early-2000-punk-rock stuff.”

It shouldn’t be a big deal. So, her mom hadn’t been a fan but as the song faded out, Julie couldn’t help ponder it. The music would’ve definitely been up her mother’s alley. She had grown up listening to all the punk-rock musicians under the sun but never ever had she seen or heard that name before.

“So, if their house is huge, why isn’t Carrie hosting on Friday?” She asked, to distract herself from the thoughts about Trevor Wilson and her mom’s possible aversion to him.

They had reached Carlos’ school and Flynn turned into the pick-up-lane.

“He doesn’t really like having people over. Something about wanting the house quiet and empty. I just think he’s paranoid about guests snitching to the tabloids, because honestly, a house that big should be filled with people. They have like four unused bedrooms!”

Carlos entering the car and chatting animatedly about his school day, ended their conversation effectively. He obviously had made another new friend today according to his stories that filled the rest of the drive home.

Julie had lost count of how many new friends he had made in the ten days since moving to L.A. Sometimes she envied him for being this open towards new people.

Then, Flynn asked him a question about the science experiment he was currently conducting in the desk of his room, something about growing crystals and her heart grew soft.

She had made one great new friend here. What more could she need?

\- - -

“Absolutely not!” Tía’s voice and face were stern as she stared them down from across the dinner table.

“But, mami,” whined Flynn, “I will have to bury my social life if we don’t have the party.” She got up from her seat, flipped her hair dramatically. Placing her hands on the table, she continued, “I won’t have any friends, no date to Homecoming and Prom and—”

Her mother interrupted her, a smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth. “Quit the drama, honey. You have Julie and I always thought, we raised you to not define your worth by dates and relationships.”

“I don’t,” shot Flynn back fiercely.

“Well, then you’ll easily survive the death of your social life.”

Flynn blinked, huffed and then turned to Julie. Nudging her side, she nodded at the parents sitting opposite of them.

“It’d really only be people from school,” she said, smiling at her dad. “And it’d be great to get to know them all better! And we absolutely promise to clean up the next day!”

Julie could see it in his eyes. She almost had him. Never before had she wanted to throw a party or had asked to go to one. Her former friends at all the other schools had always been a lot quieter than Flynn. They had stayed in during the weekends, watching movies or playing video games. If they went bowling, it had been a wild get-together. So, this was definitely a first.

“Por favor, papi.” She jutted out her lower lip.

He blinked. Hook, line, sinker.

“Well, I don’t see why they can’t have the party here,” he said, turning to the two women on his right. “After all, we’ll be here to keep it from getting out of hand.”

“He’s right, love,” agreed Tonya.

Flynn squealed, rounding the table to hug her mom from behind.

“And wouldn’t it be fun to have this house filled with people?”, Tonya continued, as she patted Flynn’s arms around her gently.

Her query was directed at tía who watched her family for a moment before sighing, “Seems like it’s two against one.”

Julie got up as well, kissing her dad on the cheek. “Thanks, papi,” she whispered, as she stole a fry from his plate.

“Hey, hey, can we get a floating dinosaur for the party? That’d be so cool,” cheered Carlos then, bouncing in his seat with excitement. “And a donut and a pineapple and Flynn can have a unicorn with one of those rainbow tails since she loves rainbows so much…”

He continued to babble, listing things he wanted to have for the pool party.

Flynn and her sat down next to him again, bumping their fists against each other under the table. This had gone a lot easier than expected, but Julie wasn’t going to complain.

They spent the rest of the evening, setting up a Spotify playlist for Friday. It was mostly Flynn’s music, though Julie got a few of her and her mom’s favorite bands in there as well.

When they were satisfied, and the playlist three hours long, they lay down on Flynn’s bed.

Julie liked hanging out in her cousin’s room. She felt a lot closer to her mom in here, the memories of her a lot stronger within the purple walls. Flynn had actually offered a trade but she had declined. In her current room she was much closer to Carlos and could actually hear him when he got woken up by another round of nightmares.

They stared at the ceiling, minds wandering, when Julie’s snapped to the picture hidden in her nightstand. How could she forget about showing it to Flynn?

She basically dragged her friend across the hallway, ignoring her protests and Carlos ‘questions. They were barely comprehensible anyways, since he was in the middle of brushing his teeth.

Julie placed Flynn on her bed, signaling her to wait. Checking that Carlos hadn’t followed them, she got out the notebook and flipped the pages until she reached the picture.

“I found this in the pool house last night,” she hissed as she showed it to her cousin.

Flynn stared. “You went out there again?” The piano story had spooked her a little.

Ignoring her, Julie pointed at the polaroid. “Look! It’s my mom.”

Finally, Flynn lowered her gaze onto the photograph. She squinted, bringing it closer to them and then locked eyes with her. “That’s the same—”

“Yeah,” breathed out Julie, the excitement about her nightly discovery coming back tenfold. “And those must be her housemates! And that one, that one” – she pointed to the one on the very left – “he kinda looks like the boy I’ve seen!”

Flynn stared at her as if she’d grown a second head. Then she dropped the photo in her lap and sighed. “Jules, that’s… you know that can’t be, right?”

Julie got up from where she had been crouching in front of her friend and started pacing through the room. “I know, I know, but- like, consider it—”

“Julie, no.” Shaking her head, Flynn placed the picture back between the pages of the notebook. “There’s no such thing as ghosts.”

Somewhere down the hall a door slammed close.

“Just, for a moment, humor me,” Julie begged, taking Flynn’s hands into hers. “It all makes sense if you think about it! It’s the only explanation for all of it; the wind, the missing tools, us being locked in the bathroom, the shirt, everything!”

She could feel the excitement growing inside her with every step, every word.

“They are ghosts!” She picked up the polaroid, waving it in front of Flynn’s face.

Her cousin’s eyes were soft, lips drawn downward and when she opened her mouth, Julie already knew what she was going to say. “I know, it’s a nice thought, Jules, but like I said, there’s no such things as ghosts. Your mom… she’s really gone.”

Blowing out a breath, Julie rubbed her free hand over her face. “Okay, say you’re right. If it wasn’t the same boy, what other explanation could there be? Because I am sure, they looked alike.”

“Maybe it was his kid, I don’t know, there are a million boys living in L.A. who look like that.”

Julie deflated. Technically, she knew that Flynn was right. She just didn’t want to admit it. The possibility of ghosts living here, it was a nice thought, a comforting one. She had pictured her mom watching them fondly a lot in the last few days.

Whenever she was talking to her dad, placing his cup of coffee in front of him in the morning or helping him look for his keys or wallet which he suddenly seemed to misplace constantly. Just yesterday, they had found them in the freezer, with no idea how they had ended up there.

Hugging Carlos, tugging him in at night, she imagined her mom being there, being proud of her for taking care of her family just like she had used to.

Having that possibility ripped away again, it almost hurt as much as the first time she had lost her.

Flynn seemed to realize that she was close to breaking, because she carefully sat her down on the bed, stroking her hair. “I’m so sorry, Jules, I really am,” she whispered into the quiet room.

Julie took a shuddering breath. “It’s okay. I-I know it was stupid anyway.” She still showed Flynn the backside. “But at least now we know their first names.”

“Hey, that’s awesome! We’ll get right on that tomorrow after school! I can’t believe there were a lot of teenage boy bands during the 90’s who could afford a place like thi—ouch!” She rubbed her temple. Brows furrowing, she eyed the air around her suspiciously.

“What?” Julie asked.

“It-it was nothing.” Flynn shook her head. “Whatever, we’ll find out more about them tomorrow.” She reread the back of the photograph once more. “And what kinda name is Reggie anyways?”

This time a beat or two passed, before her cousin shot of the bed, cursing and holding the side of her face.

Julie quickly stood up, examining her temple carefully. “What happened?”, she asked again.

Flynn grimaced. “Something flicked me, you know, like this.”

She demonstrated it against Julie’s head. Her fingers barely grazing her skin, though.

Julie was about to say something but Flynn was quicker than her. “There are no ghosts,” she rushed out, crossing her arms, pouting. “It’s probably just a migraine. Mami gets them all the time.”

Raising an eyebrow, Julie crossed her arms. Her mom had gotten migraines, too. They had quickly turned into stage 4 cancer. She wasn’t going to say that, though. There was no need to scare her cousin like that.

\- - -

“Aww, man, I loved that shirt!”

“You rocked it, too! I’m sure you could still pull it off. I mean, look at you! You haven’t aged a day for years.”

The pleased giggle, that followed, woke Julie up fully. For a moment, she wasn’t sure if she wasn’t still dreaming.

“Oh, fuck off, Reg,” breathed out the first voice.

“Guys, hey, shut up!” A third voice joined the conversation, this one a lot closer.

Julie squeezed her eyes shut, tried to even out her breathing. Which was hard, considering the fact that at least three boys were currently in her bedroom. While she was sleeping. She had every right to freak out. Why wasn’t Carlos with her tonight?

“That was a nice day,” said the first voice wistfully.

Hums of agreements vibrated through the air and she tried her hardest to locate them. If she had to defend herself, she at least wanted to know where they were standing.

The first one was close to the bookshelves, the third one must be standing right next to her bed and the second? She honestly had no idea.

“But honestly, we need to be more careful,” mumbled the first voice.

Something was picked up from one of the shelves and put down again a moment later. Julie’s curiosity grew with every passing heartbeat. What was happening? Who were they? What were they doing in her bedroom?

“She’s already so close to figuring it out, thanks to the genius over there—”

“Hey!” The second voice rang through the room. He must’ve been standing close to her desk.

“—and we really can’t risk it.”

“Why not?” The tone of the voice closest to her was provoking. She imagined him crossing his arms, jutting out his chin defiantly.

“Because she already has enough on her plate. The last thing Julie needs is to handle three dumbass ghosts.”

Julie couldn’t keep the gasp in. Her eyes flew open a second later.

The curtains were drawn close but the nightlight she had gotten for when Carlos slept in her bed, illuminated the room enough to make them out.

Them being three boys, all a little older than her. If she hadn’t just had her theory confirmed by the blond one who was fingering the ballerina figurine, their looks certainly would have. They were the boys from the photograph. The one by the desk was the one from the garden, too.

They were _ghosts_.

Finally, the realization sat in and as she locked eyes with the last of them, the one standing next to her bed, holding the notebook she had found in her mother’s drawer, she started screaming.

“Nonononono,” pleaded the one by the desk – Reggie, her mind helpfully supplied – but Julie barely heard him, her eyes wildly dancing around the room, trying to take it all in.

Her dad barged in seconds later, door crashing against the wall and the noise made Julie flinch.

When she opened her eyes again, the boys were gone.

Worry was etched into her father’s features, as he turned on the lights and then hurried to her bedside. “Mija,” he whispered, stroking her hair, “is everything alright?”

 _No_.

“Yeah, yeah, just… a nightmare. I’m sorry for waking you up,” she quickly added.

“Nonsense.” He kissed her forehead.

In the next moment, Carlos appeared in the doorway. His eyes were still heavy with sleep, he was clutching Mr Peterson whose eyepatch sat a little crookedly on his furry head.

The notebook fell from the window sill where it had been placed by the… _ghost_ , landing on the carpet with a heavy sound. Had he tossed it down? Where they still here?

“Dios mio!” Tía showed up behind Carlos, Tonya right next to her. Flynn joined them a moment later, sticking her head between her mothers’ shoulders. “Is everything alright?”

Julie blushed. “Just nightmares,” she tried to wave it off.

The pitying glances were to be expected but they didn’t make her feel better at all.

“Ah, mija, you know what always helps against nightmares?”, asked tía, stepping into the room and sitting down on the other side of Julie’s bed. Ignoring her dad’s warning glances, she continued, “Leche con miel. It’s our secret family recipe against all doubts, fears and worries.”

“Ours, too,” blurted out Carlos.

Her dad and aunt shared a heavy look, Julie didn’t have the energy to interpret.

“Well, then let’s get some,” cut Tonya’s voice through the awkward silence that had descended over the room.

They all shuffled down into the kitchen, quietly chatting about random topics as they settled down at the bar.

Nobody asked her anymore questions, all careful to keep the conversation light and breezy. Within minutes the room had filled with chatter, laughs and the smell of warm milk and honey. The warmth spread out between them, reaching into every corner and every nook and for the first time, Julie wondered if maybe, maybe her mother’s plan could actually work. Maybe, they could become a family again.

But then, she caught the glances between her aunt and father and suddenly, she wasn’t so sure anymore.

They probably first had to find out what had happened between them, what had happened in her mother’s past before they could move on.

Julie pushed the thoughts away for now, though. She would enjoy the moment, although another part of her wanted to get back to her room, see if the ghosts were still there.

Ghosts. It was still so hard to wrap her head around it.

There were three ghosts living in their house. And they were cute, too. She had filed that tidbit of information away for Flynn.

Shortly after three, Julie had convinced her dad and everyone else that she was fine. And yes, she could sleep alone in her room.

With a relieved sigh, she finally closed the door behind herself, leaning against it for a moment, eyes shut.

“So, that was awkward.”

Her eyes popped open. There, on her bed, sat the three boys – ghosts. They all stared at her, eyeing her just as curiously as she was checking them out.

Julie had stared at the polaroid so much in the last twenty-four hours that it wasn’t hard to put names to their faces.

The one she had seen before in the garden, Reggie was fidgeting the most, his fingers rubbing against one another and he shot her a shy smile. His blond friend, Alex, was fiddling with his fanny pack.

It was the one in the middle, Luke, holding the notebook, who spoke up again, “No more screaming, please.”

The nonchalance with which he spoke, the ease of them lounging around on her bed, rubbed her the wrong way. This was her room now after all and they couldn’t just barge in here like they owned the place.

“What are you doing in my room?” She asked, chin raised, eyes fixated on Luke.

“It’s Alex’ room technically.” He pointed his index finger to the blond on his left who raised his hand in a quick wave. “What are you doing with my book?”

There was an edge to his voice and maybe she should’ve heard the curiosity laced with it but she was too busy, trying to work through everything to pick up on it. The thought most prominent on her mind was, that the notebook, it had belonged to her mom and now it belonged to her and seeing him so carelessly flipping through the pages made her angry.

With three quick steps she had reached them and tugged the book from his fingers. An indignant shout followed as he jumped to his feet, getting all up in her face.

Julie pressed the notebook close to her chest, shielding herself with it and the air around her turned icy. Suddenly the cold spots around the house made a lot more sense. 

_Insulation, yeah right, Flynn_ , she thought before focusing back on the boy in front of her. 

He was taller than her, brown curls peeking out from underneath his grey hat and the shirt he was sporting, was actually the one she had found in the pool house the night of the piano incident.

Quickly, she put two and two together, completely ignoring his question. “You were in the pool house,” she breathed out.

His face turned innocent as if he had no idea what she was talking about.

“Two nights ago, I found your shirt!”

“You were naked?”, piped up Reggie, stepping closer to his friend. “Dude!”

“I wasn’t-“, Luke started only to be interrupted by her.

“You made the lid crash down… you nearly took my fingers off!” The last part was a whisper-shout and now Julie was getting into his face, anger radiating off her in waves, heating up the air between them. She ignored the tiny shivers running down her spine.

“Dude!” Now Alex stepped up on his other side and smacked him over the head. “What’s wrong with you? We agreed on no scaring them!”

“She was about to play” – a finger pointed at Julie – “on _her_ piano!” – a heavy emphasis on the word ‘her’ and Julie was certain, he wasn’t talking about the girl in front of him – “I was not just going to stand by.”

“That’s-I-you-we” The blond stammered through the words. “Okay… I am sorry about him.”

Julie locked eyes with him but it didn’t calm her down at all. “And who gave you the right to rummage through my stuff? And just show up in my room like this? Don’t you know about privacy and boundaries? Just because you’re ghosts doesn’t mean you can ignore common human manners and rules.”

“Ah, but it kinda does,” spoke up Reggie, wiggling his eyebrows.

“No, it does not.” Julie shot back, making him flinch, shoulders drawn.

“Hey,” snapped hat-boy, “Stop yelling at Reg and this” – he snagged back the notebook, robbing her of her shield – “is mine.”

“It was my mom’s,” she disagreed, grabbing it on the opposite end. For a ghost he was surprisingly strong.

Grimacing he bit back, “Same thing.”

Julie was too occupied to keep her grip on the notebook to ponder on that statement. The boy seemed to have enough a moment later, because he tugged at it once more, this time obviously using all his strength. It slipped from Julie’s fingers but not without taking her with it first, making her stumble forward.

She couldn’t stop the movement, hands coming up to brace herself, she expected the impact with his chest.

Apparently, she had forgotten they were ghosts for a moment, because instead of colliding with him, she fazed right through, face-planting into her mattress.

Somebody sniggered and Julie’s face burnt hotly. It didn’t calm her down at all.

Turning around, she caught Reggie grinning, while Luke was biting his lip to keep himself from smirking. Only Alex looked apologetic, elbowing his ghost-friend in the side.

“I’m sorry about them,” he started again but the door opening, cut him off.

Carlos stepped into the room, Mr Peterson tugged underneath his arm. Julie sat up, glared at Luke and then turned to her brother.

“Carlos, it’s okay…” She softened her voice, making sure, he wasn’t scared.

But her little brother didn’t even acknowledge the three boys surrounding him. Julie frowned. She checked with Alex, who shrugged.

“He can’t see us. It’s… complicated,” he settled on, grinning sheepishly.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t mind him seeing us. Those games he keeps playing look so fun!” Reggie bounced on his feet, eyes sparkling like a little kid’s on its birthday.

“You- you still need someone to protect you? From your nightmares?” Carlos asked.

His voice was trembling, telling Julie enough. He was scared and tired, a dangerous combination which most of the times involved tears and even more nightmares.

Looking at Luke, she hissed, “Get out!”

This was family business, none of their matter and she didn’t need them watching this.

But it was Carlos who reacted first, gasping, crossing his arms. “What?”

“Oh, no, I meant, get outta here! Me? Nightmares?! Psht!” She laughed bleakly.

Her brother wasn’t fully convinced. “God, you’re so weird sometimes,” he mumbled, yet he had started to climb into Julie’s bed while she shooed out the ghosts behind his back.

They vanished with a low electric sound, a gust of wind fanning Julie’s face and she blinked. She couldn't help the silent huff, as the thought from before echoed through her head once more. _Insulation, my ass._

Julie turned to her brother. He had already picked up his favorite pillow, making sure he was comfortable and keeping Mr Peterson close to his chest.

She lay down next to him, scanned the room once more. There was no sign of the ghosts and she hoped they had disappeared for good. She’d have to have a conversation with them about boundaries, that was for sure.

While Carlos’ breathing evened out, she tried to make sense of what had happened in the last hour. Wrapping her head around the fact, that ghosts were real, strangely enough was the easiest part. It was a lot harder to tamper down on the feeling of hope blooming in her chest.

If these three boys had known her mom, if they had grown up with her, they would not only be able to answer all of Julie’s questions.

Maybe – and she quieted the thought a million times until it finally pushed through – maybe her mom was out there somewhere, waiting for Julie to find her.

Staring at Carlos’ peaceful face, she slowly drifted to sleep, not being able to hear the songs played in the pool house; songs that had been lost for almost twenty-five years.


	6. in my dreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the lovely feedback on the last chapter!  
> I really enjoyed hearing all your thoughts about it.
> 
> This one has a lot of bonding and very little plot because I just wanted to write some Julie/boys dynamics 😉
> 
> The title is from Radical Face's 'From the mouth of an injured head'.  
> Feedback is always and in any form appreciated! You can come hang out with me on[tumblr](http://serendipitee.tumblr.com/) or [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/lettering_labyrinth/) and we can cry about not having a season 2 annoucement together.
> 
> Have fun reading!  
> Bea x.

## IN MY DREAMS

_But there's something missing'_  
_There's something lost in my head._  
_Could you help me fix it?_  
_Could you please come stitch me up?_  


As Julie walked into the kitchen the next morning, she halted mid-step. For a moment she had forgotten all the craziness which had occurred during the night, pushing it to the back of her mind as a very realistic dream.

But right there, leaning against the counter, chin resting on his hands, stood Alex, greeting her with a timid smile and a little wave.

While Julie tried to once again sort through her thoughts, through the shattering of her perception of the world and what having ghosts be real meant for everything else she had always believed in (or better said hadn’t believed in), Tonya brewed coffee like it was just another morning.

“Did you sleep well?” Alex asked and his voice made the hairs on her forearm rise because it sounded just so real.

Without the night surrounding them, he suddenly seemed like a real boy, with blond strands of hair falling into his face, the jeans jacket and hoodie combo letting him fit into 2020 perfectly. Even his colorful socks didn’t put her off and for a second, Julie contemplated throwing the spoon closest to her to check if it’d pass through.

She was pretty sure it would. Just like she had last night.

Humming in reply to his question, she busied herself with helping Tonya set the table. They fell into their routine which didn’t stop Julie’s mind and eyes from flitting to the elephant (ghost-boy) in the room.

He was so at ease as if he had watched them prepare breakfast a dozen times and she stuttered in her step as she realized that maybe he had.

And then her mind raced through the last weeks of living here, trying to spot moments when the boys might’ve been in the room with them. She quickly came to realize that they just constantly seemed to be around.

Alex obviously knew what she was thinking as she spun towards him, a finger raised at him accusingly. “We were curious.” He said, shrugging sheepishly.

Julie raised an eyebrow at him, getting distracted by Tonya handing her a cup of coffee. She inhaled the scent of the black liquid, sighing and thanking the woman.

“You are the first people living here since—” He stopped himself, squinting his eyes. “Since forever.”

Great, another question added to her list. It just kept on growing.

At least now she knew where to ask to get some answers.

“Morning!” Flynn scuffled into the kitchen, eyes small and voice still rough from sleep.

Julie poured her cup, only filling it halfway so her cousin could pour an insane amount of cream and sugar into it. She was sure, that Flynn only drank coffee in the morning to appear more mature. Which probably was the healthier way to live as a seventeen-year-old.

Alex’ eyes got big as he watched Flynn not only put two, not three but four heaps of sugar into her mug, before finally taking a sip just to add another one.

“That’s disgusting,” he commented and Julie met his eyes, catching the glint in them.

She snickered, hiding her laugh behind her raised cup. Flynn ignored her thankfully and Tonya had left them alone to wake up her wife.

It would’ve been the perfect time to tell Flynn about the ghost currently chilling in the seat next to her but Julie couldn’t get herself to do it. She wasn’t sure if the other girl would even believe her; after all, her theories had all been shot down.

And there was a small voice in the back of her head, whispering to keep them a secret, let them be hers for a little while longer. At least until she had managed to find some answers to her most pressing questions.

“Any more nightmares?”, asked Flynn quietly after having downed half of her coffee.

“No, no, rest of the night was good. Carlos came over, though,” she added.

For a moment, Alex opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something but then he shut it again, shaking his head slightly. Julie watched him curiously.

“Poor little dude,” mumbled Flynn, taking a bite from the toast on her plate. The thickly spread peanut-butter left a mark on her nose.

Alex watched her with fascination, his eyes repeatedly traveling to her cousin’s rainbow necklace. _Huh?_ Julie blinked, before a small smile spread on her lips.

The coffee and sugar in her bloodstream had awaken Flynn’s loud and brash personality by now and she started monologuing about the party the next day, listing everything they still needed to prepare for it.

Julie nodded along, hummed at the right spots and drowned out her friend’s voice, letting it wash over her while she templated how to get the ghosts to answer all her questions.

“… and we could put the bar into the pool house,” said Flynn.

“No!” Alex’ shout startled Julie, making her spill some of her coffee. “Sorry, but no, you can’t let people in there. Luke is going to freak out!”

Getting something to wipe down the counter, Julie mumbled, keeping her voice so low that Flynn couldn’t possibly pick up on it, “He’ll survive.”

“That’s not- okay,” Alex chuckled, running his hand through his hair.

 _Right, ghost_. Racking her brain to come up with a suitable response, Flynn continued to plan and Julie decided to simply roll her eyes for good measure.

The blond was about to say something else when Carlos rushed into the kitchen, throwing himself into the seat, currently taken by Alex.

Julie waited a beat, just like the ghost did, looking down at the boy rummaging around in his body. It made her feel queasy, as Carlos started to prepare his breakfast and finally the boy fazed out of her little brother, shaking himself quickly.

“This… is just too weird,” slipped out of her mouth.

“You’re weird,” shot Carlos back immediately.

Alex chuckled, while Flynn just shook her head before launching into another monologue.

  
\- - -  


The Toyota stood in the driveway by the time they got home from school.

Carlos wasn’t with them today, since he had baseball practice on Thursday afternoon and Julie was glad. She had a double-sided page full of questions she wanted to ask the ghosts and it was easier to interrogate them without having her little brother and his nosy ears around.

She had planned it in detail but then the gates opened, presenting her mom’s old car and three ghosts surrounding it and everything flew out the window. Especially because Luke just kicked one of the front wheels and Julie jumped out of the car before Flynn had even turned off the engine.

“Hey!”, she yelled, storming forward. She motioned to grab Luke’s bare arm, stopping herself at the last second, because ghost and also boundaries and instead stared him down.

He simply tilted his head, cocked his eyebrow and smirked.

“That’s my mom’s car,” she continued.

“I figured as much,” commented Flynn drily as she stepped up to her .

Julie startled. She had completely forgotten about her cousin for a second.

“It doesn’t look as shabby as you described it.”

“Hey!” Reggie’s head appeared out of the window on the passenger’s side, pouting. “It’s a classic!”

“It’s not,” sighed Alex, obviously done with his two ghostmates and Julie’s eyes danced from one to the next, while Flynn walked around the car, mumbling under her breath. When she had reached Julie again, all four of them were watching her carefully.

“Can I take a look at the engine?” Flynn asked, taking her scrunchie and pulling her corn rows into a heavy bun.

While Luke sputtered out something that was undistinguishable, Julie nodded, watching the other girl pop the hood open and lean inside.

“Does she even know what she’s doing?”, hat-boy rushed out.

She didn’t glance towards him, crossing her arms in front of her chest instead and said, “I don’t see how that is any of your business.”

He gasped. “None of my business,” he breathed out, “none of my business? Oh, you have no idea how much that is my business!”

“Luke!” Alex put a hand on the other boy's shoulder.

“Don’t _Luke_ me! That car is _ours_. There’s a goddamn sticker on the trunk with our name on it and—”

“There’s not,” interrupted Reggie and Luke stumbled over his own feet as he rushed to the boy in plaid at the back of the car.

Julie had followed their conversation with wide eyes, the list in her backpack growing with every passing second. She needed answers. Now.

“What sticker?” She asked at the same time as Luke bellowed, “Where is it?”

Alex and her shared a glance as they rounded the car, staring at the trunk. There was rust around the lock and the paint was flaking off where her mom had crashed into a pole a few years back but apart from that the surface was smooth. No sticker in sight.

“There was a sticker. Right here.” He pointed at the left corner of the trunk, right next to the taillights.

“See, this isn’t your car. There was never a sticker.” Julie raised an eyebrow challengingly.

He leaned closer, so close that were he alive, she’d feel his breath on her face. “That is our car. The cassette slot is broken but you can still wiggle them in if only you know the right way to do so and the right window only goes down halfway because it’s stuck ever since Reg did something to it. He refuses to tell us what, though.”

Reggie grumbled under his breath, blushing furiously.

“And there’s a huge stain on the passenger seat from when Bobby spilled his hot coffee all over himself when, when” – he took a deep breath and with pain in his eyes he continued – “when we almost ran somebody over. We- we took him to the hospital together. That stain, it’s important.”

A whimper escaped Reggie’s lips and Alex shuffled his feet in the gravel of the driveway and Julie’s eyes wandered over the three boys in front of her until they finally met Luke’s again.

Very deep at the back of her mind, she remembered asking her mom about why she had never gotten new upholstery for the passenger seat. ‘It would ruin the memories, sweetie,’ she had answered.

Another question added to her list.

“That car was my mom’s. It has always belonged to her and now, it’s mine and—”

Luke seemed ready to interrupt her but somebody else was quicker.

“Who are you talking to?” Flynn had seemingly appeared out of thin air, hands dirty from the motor oil and there was speck of grease above her eyebrow.

“Nobody!” Julie said hurriedly, putting on a grin that didn’t convince her cousin at all.

For a long moment they just stared at each other, but then Flynn sighed. “Honestly, this car is piece of garbage—”

“Hey!”, protested four voices at the same time.

Only being able to hear one of them, she continued, “But since this has been your mom’s and I know it’s important to you, I can at least promise you that we won’t have to get it to a shop. I can fix it up. And when I am done with it, it’ll be as good as new.”

“Really?” Julie gaped, completely ignoring the indignant shouts of the boys around her, because Flynn had just offered to fix her mom’s car.

The other girl chuckled. “I might need my mom’s help sometimes but I’ll do my best.”

“You are amazing,” crowed Julie, rushing forward to hug her tightly.

“I know.”

With an arm still slung around her shoulder, Flynn and her examined the rest of the car, the boys hot on their heels. The other girl was rambling again, naming parts she needed to order online and assuring Julie that it wouldn’t be a problem to get Tonya’s help.

“And we can even get some new upholstery because that’s just nasty.” She pointed at the stain in the passenger’s seat and Julie froze.

It wasn’t only the pain of being reminded of her mom. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Reggie’s leather-clad arm reach between her and Flynn and flicking her best friend against the temple.

 _Oh_.

Flynn flinched, rubbing the spot Reggie had touched, only to have Luke do it on the other side.

“Stop it!”, barked Julie.

“Then tell her to not ruin the car!”, Luke shot back.

She wanted nothing more than to tell him to stop telling her what to do but Flynn’s hurt eyes distracted her. “No need to get loud…,” grumbled her cousin.

Julie quickly closed her mouth, let her shoulders sink and settled on calmly saying no to Flynn once more. “I want it to stay just the way it is. Well, without the engine problems.”

Her cousin chuckled softly. “I get it. Memories and all that… it’s important. Especially after they’re gone.”

Julie nodded heavily, accepting the hug from her friend and resting her head on Flynn’s shoulder. “Thanks, Flynn,” she mumbled just as Reggie said it, his eyes glistening.

The need to comfort him hit her so forcefully, she let out a gasp, which made her friend only tighten her hold on her. But Julie blinked and the boys were gone, leaving her and Flynn alone.

  
\- - -  


Julie was working on her outfit for Friday that evening, when her eyes wandered towards the pool house again and again. She couldn’t get Alex’ voice out of her head, the warning that Luke would freak out, if they used the room for the party.

Grabbing her mom’s old cardigan from the bed, Julie decided to leave the paint on the shirt to dry for now. She could always finish it later.

Tonya and tía were watching a documentary in the living room, the blueish light of the TV flickering across the hallway. Flynn was still working on the car, had been working on it all afternoon and evening. She had shooed everybody out of the garage whenever they dared to step foot in it.

Her dad had been gone all day, while Carlos was hopefully already asleep. Tightening the cardigan around herself, her bare feet touched the cool grass as she stepped outside.

Julie wasn’t surprised to see the ghosts lounge around the pool house, when she stepped in. She had been right to assume the instruments were theirs, too.

Luke had one of the six-strings across his lap, strumming mindlessly while Reggie had stretched out on the couch, head and feet hanging off at the ends as he fiddled with something in his hands. Alex spotted her first, rising from behind the drums.

“Julie,” he greeted her, twirling one of his drumsticks between his fingers.

“So, you’re actually a band?” She asked, crossing the arms in front of her chest.

Luke’s eyes traveled up and down her body, getting caught on her cardigan for a moment, but he didn’t deign her question with an answer, instead focusing back on his instrument.

Reggie sat up, nodding excitedly. “Yeah, we are– or well, we were…”

“That’s awesome!” Julie grinned.

“Do you play, too?” Alex rounded his drums and sat down next to the other boy on the couch.

“Of course, she does,” answered Luke brashly before Julie could even open her mouth.

Shortly, their eyes met, green and brown, before he dropped his down to his fingers, working through a variation of chords meticulously.

She watched him for a moment, trying to place the melody because it sounded oddly familiar.

He caught her staring and Julie quickly averted her eyes, focusing back on the other two boys. “I actually wanted to ask you something,” she started, making sure that Luke listened, before she continued, “we’re having a party tomorrow and we wanted to put the bar into the pool house—”

She couldn’t even finish her sentence. Luke bellowed out a loud ‘NO’ before he was all up in her face.

He followed it with a ‘not happening’ pressed through his teeth as he stared down at her.

Julie raised an eyebrow. “I am not here to ask for your permission. I just wanted to let you know as a courtesy. We’ll put your instruments in the garage to keep them safe and—”

Again, he interrupted her forcefully. “You are _not_ touching our stuff.”

She sighed. “Listen, this was Flynn’s idea and I can’t just shoot it down because a bunch of ghosts are occupying our pool house. She’ll think I’ve gone off the deep end.”

“I don’t care.”

His green eyes were unblinking. He had crossed his arms. They were almost touching but instead of the icy cold, Julie had grown somewhat accostumed to around them, the air was vibrating hotly.

“Well, lucky for me, you can’t stop me.” She meant to walk through him, just for emphasis, just like she had done last night but she didn't faze through. She collided straight with his chest.

A low chuckle escaped his throat. “Still got a few tricks up my sleeve.”

Taking a step back, Julie frowned. “How did you do that? How do you do any of it?”

Alex was the one to answer this time, drawing her attention away from Luke. “We can control when we’re corporeal or are able to touch things if we focus really hard. Some stuff is easier to move, and well, emotions help.” He shrugged, a heavy sigh following. “It’s complicated. We don’t really know how it everything works but… we had enough time to figure some things out by now.”

Eyes flickering back to Luke, who was still looking at her, Julie straightened her back. “Look, I can imagine you want all of us gone as soon as possible so you can continue to do whatever the hell it is you’re doing but the party is happening if you want it to or not.”

“Why do you think we’d want you to leave?” Reggie asked, eyes big, bottom lip quivering.

She swallowed against the sudden lump in her throat, “Well, um, you wouldn’t have to share the house with anybody, could go wherever you want, play whenever you want and…”

Alex smiled. “We really don’t mind you being here. It’s been… lonely the last couple of years.”

“Really?” The incredulous tone in her voice made the boys on the couch wince. “Could’ve fooled me.”

She side-eyed Luke who was suddenly very interested in his Vans.

The blond drummer chuckled. “Don’t mind him. He’s just territorial and over-protective.”

At his friend’s words, the guitarist rubbed the back of his neck, biting his lips and Julie tried to keep her eyes from wandering to his biceps but she failed.

He caught her staring, a smirk immediately replacing the bashful smile from before and Julie hurriedly continued, “Okay, then you have the choice of your instruments being safe in the garage or they stay here within reach of everybody and their sticky drinks.”

All of them grimaced at the image but nobody said anything. They all looked at the boy closest to her, who was decidedly focusing on his shoes again.

She was about to continue with her argument, when he sighed. “Fine, keep them safe, I guess.”

A little surprised, she thanked him, sending him a smile before checking her phone. It was close to eleven already.

“Okay, then I’ll see you tomorrow?”

After this party, she’d sit them down for an evening and ask them all the questions she actually wanted to. She’d get answers, calm her mind and figure out what had happened with her mom and them, tía and her dad.

“Sure! Sleep tight!” Reggie chirped, wiggling his fingers in a wave.

An honest smile spread on her lips. “You, too.”

“Oh, we don’t sleep,” answered the dark-haired boy quickly.

Julie let out a soft gasp but Alex shrugged, waving it off. “It’s fine. We’ve been awake for a long time. You kinda get used to it.”

“So, you don’t dream either?” She asked, eyes wandering from one ghost to the next.

“Not really, no…” Reggie said.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s hard to make dreams come true when you’re a ghost, so honestly, saves us a lot of disappointment.” Luke’s voice was bitter, posture rigid.

Julie looked at his face, the drawn-in bottom lip, the hard stare at the couch table in front of him, the fingers digging into his arms. She didn’t believe one word of what he had just said. He obviously still had dreams.

“That’s… sad.” There were a million things she’d have rather said, had rather asked, like what exactly his dreams were? What did a ghost-boy from the 90’s dream about? Instead, she bid them goodnight once more, their responses following her out of the pool house, and sitting in the back of her mind as she settled into bed.

A heavy sleep found her only minutes later, tugging her down into a world, where her mom was alive. They spent a wonderful afternoon at the beach, jumping through the waves, their laughter echoing around in Julie’s head, bouncing off the walls, multiplying until all she could hear was her family’s joy.

  
\- - -  


Carrie stopped them right as they reached Flynn’s car the following day.

“So, everything’s ready for tonight, I hope.” She said, her handbag dangling off her crossed arms, perfectly manicured fingernails drumming against her forearm. 

Julie rolled her eyes, as Flynn squared her shoulders.

“Yes, we’ve got everything prepared.” Her friend shot back snidedly.

The blonde laughed, flicking her hair. “Great! I invited the entire lacrosse team, by the way. I hope, that’s fine. Nick wanted his team mates there. They might bring some friends, too, but that’s no problem, right?”

Julie wanted to protest, because that could actually become one. Their parents had allowed the party with their classmates. Nobody had said anything about half the student body.

But Flynn was faster. “No,” she answered through clenched teeth.

“Wonderful!” With one last look at her cousin, Carrie blew them both a kiss, before sashaying away.

“Ugh, I hate her so much!” Flynn threw her backpack onto the backseat, slumping behind the wheel.

Julie didn’t answer, she had heard that sentiment too many times since moving here. Instead, she focused on the problem at hand. “Should we tell our parents about everybody that’s apparently coming?”

“What? And have them change their mind? Are you crazy? No, no, we’ll act like we had no idea.”

Raising an eyebrow, Julie sighed. “You know, I am terribly at lying.”

“It’s not a lie,” waved Flynn off. “We’re just… willingly leaving out some information.”

“And that’s supposed to make me feel better?” She buckled her seatbelt, turning up the volume.

Her cousin shrugged, tugging her braids behind her ears before starting the engine. “The other option is cancelling and I am not going to give Carrie that satisfaction.”

Sighing, Julie knew that she wouldn’t be able to get her friend to budge. The party would happen tonight at their place, with however many people. She just had to make sure the instruments were safely stored in the garage together with her mom’s car. No way was she going to risk anything breaking.

Her dad had already picked up Carlos as they got home, pizza spread out on the long table on the patio. The sun was burning down, the awning shielding them a little, providing shadow.

Reggie was hovering behind Carlos, staring longingly at the food. Julie expected him to drool all over her little brother’s head any second when the other two boys poofed in.

“Hey!” The greeting escaped her mouth before she remembered that nobody else could actually see them. “… when are we starting all the preparations?”

Luke huffed, smirking. “Nice safe.”

“We still have enough time, mija,” answered her dad and Julie nodded, filling her mouth with pizza to keep herself from slipping up again.

“By the way,” Luke leaned close, his nose inches from hers and she was sure that under normal circumstances, she’d feel his breath fan over her face, Honestly, this boy had no concept of personal space. “We already cleaned out the pool house. You’re welcome.”

She gasped, wanting nothing more than to ask, how, but she bit her lip, effectively shutting herself up.

“Just make sure, nobody gets through the trap door and we’re good.” 

The smirk on his lips told her that he knew exactly what was racing through her mind as he poofed out, his friends following along.

The trap door, she had forgotten about it for a short moment, the appearance of three ghosts distracting her. Now, it was all she could think about.

Julie couldn’t wait for the party to be over, so she could finally get some answers in peace. She needed to tie up the loose ends, which dangled around in her mind, getting caught in each other, keeping her on edge.

Tomorrow, tomorrow she’d find out the truth, get them to talk. The excitement settling in her stomach wasn’t only about the upcoming party, it was the promise of the next day, of the possibility of getting closer to her mother again.

She didn’t try to tamper it down, instead embracing it, letting it settle in her bones. With a smile, she focused back in on the conversation around the table.

Her summer break was off to a good start and tomorrow, everything would be even better.


	7. when the morning comes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the feedback on the last chapter!  
> It's party time in this one and I hope you'll like it. (If you squint, you might even find some Juke hints in this one 😂) The title of this chapter is once again from Radical Face. The song is 'Along The Road'.
> 
> You can find me on [tumblr](http://serendipitee.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Have fun reading and any kind of feedback is appreciated!  
> Bea x.

## WHEN THE MORNING COMES

_Light from a dying moon, it blurs our eyes_  
_and we wear a cape of fireflies_  
_and after the world's in bed_  
_all the ghosts come sing along_  


“Do not blow this for us!” Julie pointed her finger at the dark-haired boy.

He stared at her, arms crossed in front of his chest, defiant look on his face. Blinking once, twice, Carlos sighed. “I don’t even wanna go to your stupid party anyways.”

“Good.” She nodded sternly. To be fair, she wasn’t really talking to her younger brother but rather the three ghosts standing behind the couch.

Minutes earlier the room had been filled with shouts and yells at the TV, her brother’s voice mixed in with the invisible teenagers surrounding him, as he played his favorite video game.

Julie had placed herself in front of the TV, ignoring all the protests and curses thrown at her unblinkingly. And in contrast to Carlos, the three ghosts had yet to say anything.

“You promise, you won’t mess anything up?” She asked, her eyes flitting up to the three boys for a moment. “No weird… _stuff_?”

“I don’t think she’s talking to him,” stage-whispered Reggie then, leaning over to Alex.

The blond rolled his eyes. “Oh, you think?!” To Julie he said, “We won’t haunt anybody or anything like that if that’s what you’re worried about.”

She squinted her eyes at them, especially at Luke who suddenly seemed very interested in the blue rabbit’s foot dangling off the chains on his pants.

Alex, following her gaze, nudged his friend in the side.

“Yeah, no, nothing to worry about it.” He grinned and Julie didn’t believe it for a second.

“I swear to god, if I hear about any cold spots or weird electric jolts, then—”

“What are you talking about?”, cut Carlos in, frowning at her, controller lying forgotten in his lap.

“Uh… nothing! No, nothing, you wouldn’t do that, right?”

Luke huffed a laugh. “Honestly, you need to get better at this.”

Julie wanted to stick her tongue out at him, but she refrained, instead stepping aside so her brother could resume his video game. Reggie was immediately intrigued again and even though Alex refused to say it, his eyes were glued to the TV.

She caught Luke still staring at her as she turned to leave the room. For the fraction of a second, there was the hint of a smile on his face. It was quickly wiped away, though and maybe she had just imagined it.

\- - -

Weaving through the people surrounding the pool, Julie hurried into the pool house. It had surprised her, how easily her dad and aunt had swallowed the lie of the other one having cleaned out the room instead of the boys. And so far, nobody had questioned that there were no instruments in the garage.

Apparently, she was a lot more trustworthy than she had imagined. It didn’t make the conversation she was about to have with her father any easier.

Because there were a lot of people in their garden. Like, a lot. Some faces she knew, others she didn’t and she wasn’t sure if all them even went to her school.

Every now and again she spotted familiar smiles, greeting them enthusiastically but she was pretty certain that her dad had by now figured out that all these people, they couldn’t possibly all fit into her class.

Especially, because some of them looked twenty or older.

“There you are!” She breathed out, as she spotted Flynn next to the sound system, working their make-shift bar. It was old, probably also from the boys but somehow it still worked perfectly.

On the other side of the room, she spotted Reggie animatedly talking at a petite girl who was standing by herself. Julie was pretty sure, that he was invisible to her, yet, it didn’t stop the smile from spreading on her face.

“Flynn, we gotta do something about all these people!” Julie yelled to be heard over the music.

Her cousin waved her off. “Jules, it’s fine! Everybody’s having fun, right?”

Grimacing, Julie had to admit that the party was going pretty great. People were dancing to hers and Flynn’s playlist, were talking and jumping into the water, enjoying the coolness of it.

It didn’t help the unsettling feeling in her chest, though.

Their parents had promised to stay at the top floor, away from the party and their classmates but Julie was sure that they had eyes and ears.

“Nice party!”

She startled. Luke’s voice was right next to her ear. For a moment, she thought she felt his lips against it.

“Honestly, I didn’t think you had it in you, but maybe” – his eyes wandered up and down her body – “maybe you’re more like—”

“Yo, Molina!” Nick threw his arm around her shoulder from her other side. He dragged her away from Luke, when all Julie wanted to know was how the sentence would’ve ended. “Thanks for inviting us!”

Carrie’s (at the moment off-) boyfriend gestured towards his teammates who lounged around the pool. Their chests glistened in the setting sun and fairy lights, hair wet, sticking to their faces.

“Your house is sick!” The one closest to them – she was pretty sure, his name was Tyler – yelled over the music, giving her a thumbs-up. “And it’s crazy that you get to live here for free! That must be so amazing!” He earned himself an elbow into his ribs.

Julie could make out the ‘dead mom’ conversation perfectly, and the scrambled apology that followed, thankfully got drowned out by the beat. Suddenly, she felt dread settled in her stomach at the thought of her mom. She knew all about how it was still allowed to have fun and live her life. Dr. Turner had told her often enough during the sessions at the start of therapy but it didn’t change the trepidation she felt right now.

Her vision turned blurry and she hastily blinked away the tears because she was not going to break down because of some off-hand comment by a random stranger at her party. She wouldn’t.

“Oh, shut up, Taylor, nobody cares what you have to say.” Carrie’s voice cut through the haze, effectively making the boy, who was apparently not called Tyler, close his mouth.

She hadn’t thought that she’d ever feel grateful towards the blonde girl next to her, but at this moment, Julie could’ve hugged her.

“God, that is so tragic…” Carrie continued, rolling her eyes. She was wearing an off-white fluttery summer dress, dangling earrings and golden bikini sparkling in the lights. Her pink nails ran along her intricate braid as she flicked it over her shoulder.

Raising an eyebrow, Julie followed her gaze until she spotted the couple making-out against the side of the pool house. They were poorly shielded by a rose bush.

Nick had grown silent on Julie’s other side and for a moment the awkwardness between the two exes seemed to suffocate her but then, Carrie sighed. “She could do so much better than him.”

Julie wasn’t really sure if it was meant to be a rib at the boy next to them but it sure felt like it. The warmth she had felt towards the other girl, vanished as quickly as it appeared because honestly, in this scenario, it sure as hell was the other way around.

Before she could say anything, though, Carrie said, “Does this place have a bar?”

“It’s inside. Flynn’s working it,” Julie said, voice clipped, arms crossed.

“Hmm,” the blonde hummed, eyes wandering over Julie’s outfit, “whatever.”

Without another word or glance, she left them alone, disappearing into the pool house and it felt like the entire lacrosse team let out a collective breath.

Nick laughed a little stiltedly by her side, nodding his head along to the music and all Julie wanted was to get away from the situation.

“Wanna dance?” She asked and when his face lit up, she led them to the area they had marked as the dance floor.

It lay between the two houses, the grass flattened by the feet of what felt like a hundred or more students trampling on it.

Julie quickly realized that Nick wasn’t a bad dancer, he was just very self-conscious of his movements, always checking around himself if he was doing it right.

“You don’t dance often?” She asked.

He grinned sheepishly, leaning forward, so she could hear him better. “So far only at my little sister’s princess tea parties.”

The picture of the lacrosse player in front her dressed up as an over-the-top Disney prince made her smile. She spotted Alex dancing at the side, obviously having a lot of fun, because he showed off his moves.

Julie had to laugh when he twirled between two girls she certainly didn’t know. Catching Luke’s eyes who was watching his friend from the sidelines, she missed a step at the soft look on his face which she had never seen before.

He always looked so bitter, so hostile at least when it came to her that the smile playing around his lips caught her off-guard.

Nick’s hand shot out to steady her and Julie gave him a thankful smile. When she looked back at Luke, he had joined Alex on the dancefloor, their moves growing more elaborate and ridiculous with every twist and turn.

Dancing with Nick, Julie didn’t realize that the crowd around them grew bigger and bigger as the night settled. He was a nice guy, just like she had thought, and they compared their little siblings as they both decided they needed to get something to drink.

Stepping into the pool house, Julie couldn’t see Flynn anywhere. A girl from the chem class and a boy she had seen sporadically in the hallway stood behind the bar, handing out drinks and she frowned.

“Where’s Flynn?” She asked, yelling over the voices of everybody else.

When had it gotten so crowded in here? Where did all the people come from? She got shoved against Nick by somebody forcing their way to the front of the bar.

He steadied her, before making the culprit apologize.

Zoe shrugged. “Haven’t seen her in the last half hour… she disappeared with Carrie.”

Julie stopped. “Carrie?”, she echoed, dread filling her stomach. Hopefully, they weren’t bashing their heads in somewhere outside. She could already picture it, neither of the two girls backing down because they had gotten into another one of their screaming matches. “I need to find them.”

Not waiting for Nick’s reply, Julie started pushing her way through the people. Outside, she breathed in the cold night air, eyes landing on the ghosts who had surrounded a boy playing on his phone.

“Hey!” Julie shouted over the music, hurrying over there.

The boy startled, staring up at her with big eyes, stammering through a greeting, blushing furiously.

“Oh, look, he thinks you’re gonna talk to him,” chuckled Luke, crossing his arms.

Julie ignored him. "Have you seen Flynn?” 

“Who?”, asked the boy on the sunchair.

Reggie groaned. “Great! Now, you’ve killed him!” 

“Oh, shit!”, came the belated reaction of the stranger separating her and the three ghost-boys.

“Always distracting innocent boys, huh?” Luke wiggled his eyebrows and Julie didn’t even deign it with a reaction, instead turning to Alex. “Flynn?”

“No, sorry,” answered Alex at the same time as phone-boy shook his head.

Then, a timid smile appeared on his lips. “But if you’re up for dancing…” He offered his hand.

Julie turned him down quickly, ignoring Luke’s cackling and Reggie’s catcalling. She let her eyes wander over the pool area.

By now, she was lucky to spot even one familiar face between all the strangers and the dread in her stomach turned to led. Their parents would be so mad. Maybe she’d get grounded for the first time in her life. Maybe something even worse. She shivered. She was going to strangle Flynn.

“Should we help look for her?”, offered Alex then.

Julie nodded tersely and the boys disappeared. She started looking in the garage, behind the pool house, but no sign of Flynn. People stopped her every few feet, asking where the toilette was or thanking her for the invite. She barely knew any of them.

Finally, Julie stepped into the main house. They had locked it off to keep any rambunctious teenagers in the garden and looking back at the filled yard, it definitely had been the right idea.

“Flynn?” She called out, closing the door behind herself.

The ground floor was quiet but she could hear voices coming from the kitchen. Tiptoeing through the living room, Julie peeked around the pillar separating the living room from the hallway. She quickly recognized the voices as they became clearer.

Her aunt was hissing at her dad who had his back to her, arms crossed. His shoulders were rigid, a stiffness in them that had rarely left since her mother’s passing. Sometimes, Julie couldn’t even remember how it had been before. His smile appeared too scarce nowadays. Then again, so did hers.

“… happening because you let your daughter get away with everything!”

“I am not!” Her dad whisper-shouted back. “She’s never done anything like this before meeting your daughter!”

Gasping, tía took a step back. She was practically fuming at this point. “Oh, please don’t give me the ‘she’s a saint’-speech! She’s my sister's kid after all!”

Julie frowned. What was that supposed to mean? Her mom had never—

“Don’t” – the word was said a lot louder, making Julie flinch, just like her aunt – “don’t talk about things you know nothing about!” Her dad’s voice sounded gritted, pressed through his teeth.

Julie inched closer. Maybe she would finally get some answers about her mom’s disappearance from L.A. She pressed against the cool marble, leaning forward.

Tía had raised her eyebrows challengingly. “All that drinking, school-skipping, hanging out with those— _boys_ , she threw everything away!”

“What boys?” Her dad stumbled over the only part that Julie actually got. 

Drinking, school-skipping? That didn’t sound like her mother at all. Apart from her taste in music, Rose Molina never broke the rules. She didn’t even toe the line. Julie couldn’t even remember her ever getting a parking or speeding ticket and the one time her dad had gotten one, they had moved two weeks later.

“Her… band or whatever, they- they changed her and not in a good way and let me tell you, I barely recognized her by the time she ran away.” Tía crossed her arms in front of her chest. “And I won’t let Flynn go down the same path, so, I am ending that party!”

She quickly filed away the part of her mother running away and the fact that the boys obviously seemed to be a part of that, before she focussed back on the adults.

Her dad stepped into her aunt's path. “Are you saying my daughter’s a bad influence?”

Tía huffed. “No. You are a bad parent. I would have never allowed it in the first place!”

“Excuse me,” her dad got loud and Julie cheered him on silently. Sure, he hadn’t handled everything perfectly but he certainly wasn’t a bad father. “I know I haven’t been the best at handling Rose’s death but I think so far, I’ve been doing well enough.”

“Do you know Carlos is sleeping in Julie’s bed constantly? That she’s wandering through the house in the middle of the night? Looking for clues about her mother’s past?” The last bit seemed to startled him the most.

Taking a step back, her father searched for words, while tía strode past him towards the front door.

Julie pressed herself into the wall, holding her breath.

“Are you snooping after my children?”

“We are living in the same house! And I want to know what’s going on in it!” Tía was hissing again, now that they were closer to the stairway.

Her dad leaned forward. “I don’t know what Rose was thinking, making us live together for a year.”

“Neither do I and you are more than welcome to move out.”

Julie could stifle the gasp at the last second.

“No way,” answered her dad. “Rose was happy here and I won’t let her memories get butchered by her awful family.”

An indignant gasp followed by another as tía was looking for words. “As soon as this year’s over, we’re selling the house. And I can’t wait for it.”

“Same,” shot her dad back and somewhere behind Julie something crashed, making her jump and bump her elbow against the pillar.

She let out a curse.

Both adults looked up, right at her and the guilt and shame that they had been caught in their arguing was plainly visible on their faces.

“Julie…,” breathed out her dad, worry laced into his voice, “that wasn’t…”

She waved it off. “It’s fine, I… I’m really sorry, the party got this big, Dad. I don’t know what happened.”

Her aunt very obviously didn’t believe her and Julie was about to explain in more detail, when the screams reached their ears. They were coming from outside.

Sharing a look, all three of them hurried towards the pool house.

People were already fleeing out the gate and Julie caught Nick and his buddies in the middle of the crowd. They locked eyes before he got pulled along.

“What the hell?” Her dad voiced what they were all thinking.

They had reached the pool house. It was pandemonium. The gardening hose was dancing through the air wildly and normally it would be fun to jump through the droplets but the water was ice cold, hurting their skin as they got hit by it. The music was deafening at this point, heavy metal screaming from the speakers. And it continuously got louder. People pushed past them and Julie tried to catch their excuses but there were so many of them and the music so loud, she barely made out anything.

Covering their ears, they moved through the mess. It looked like a tornado had hit the area with solo-cups and god-knows-what strewn around. Julie didn’t even want to look too closely. 

Guests were stepping out of the pool, holding their drenched cellphones and cursing at whoever had pushed them. Apparently, nobody had. The fairy lights had been ripped down, just like the curtains and just when they entered the pool house, Flynn appeared next to them.

“What happened?” She breathed out; disbelief etched into her face.

“Where have you been?” Julie asked her. She had to shout to be heard over the music. “I’ve been looking everywhere.”

“Uh… um, the garage. Showed off the car…” Flynn tried to wave it off, instead turning towards the mess in front of them.

She wanted to prod more, because she had looked at the garage and there had been no sign of her cousin, but the way her aunt and dad seemed to cook up a giant rant made her stay quiet.

After they had finally unplugged the soundsystem, they got scolded for a good thirty minutes and grounded for the foreseeable future. Julie would’ve been happy about the way tía and Dad suddenly seemed to be on the same page, if it didn’t ruin the start of their summer break.

She also had never been grounded before, while Flynn only rolled her eyes, tapping her foot impatiently against the wooden floor.

Julie was pretty sure, that she knew what had actually happened and she was seething. The moment she got to them they’d be in for it. Why had they ruined everything?

The moment, the adults left them alone to clean up before bed, Julie could’ve sworn that she saw Reggie’s face appear behind the bushes.

He had looked back at her, pale, like he had seen a ghost. Suddenly, she felt sorry for all the curse words, that ran through her mind at the thought of them dispersing the party with their haunting.

She scolded herself immediately. Maybe it hadn’t actually been them. They had had fun, right? And they had promised her to behave. Gnawing at her bottom lip, she picked up a solo cup, letting it disappear in the garbage back. She should give them the benefit of the doubt. After all, she still wanted them to answer her questions.

The sun peeked out behind the hills when Julie finally settled into bed. Her and Flynn hadn't talked while cleaning up and it still had taken way too long. The shower she had treated herself with afterwards, had last almost half an hour, water drowning out her doubts. The fight between her aunt and father played on repeat, their words echoing through her brain and she tried to make sense of it. She had call out to them, had whispered the boys names into the night, hoping to get some answers right now since sleep wouldn't come.

They didn't appear, though, leaving her mind running wild which didn't help with falling asleep. Julie spun too many theories with why her mother had run away, the part the boys had played in it.

If only she had known what would happen in the upcoming days she'd made sure to sleep more than two hours that night.


	8. haunted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was so fun to write and we are heading straight towards some much needed answers!  
> Once again, the title is of Radical Face, this time their song 'Haunted' which was just very fitting.  
> Also, I apologize in advance for the end of this chapter but we gotta throw him in there 🙈
> 
> You can always chat with me on [tumblr](http://serendipitee.tumblr.com/), I'd be happy to hear all your theories. Feedback is like always very much and in any form appreciated!
> 
> Have fun reading,  
> Bea x.

## HAUNTED

_I think we're haunted;_  
_That we're swimming through ghosts:_  
_I think we're haunted;_  
_That we're never alone:_  


If Julie had thought that the first days in the house with all its strange cold spots and occurrences had been off-putting it was nothing compared to what followed in the aftermath of the party.

It multiplied by infinity. The warm water would shut down whenever anyone of them took a shower, Tonya busy fixing the plumbing every other morning. Doors got stuck, carpets dripped them, stuff broke without any of them ever touching it. Things vanished just to appear in the possession of somebody else and it didn’t help the tense atmosphere between the two families at all.

They didn’t talk to each other more than necessary, even Flynn and Julie had basically stopped speaking at this point.

The instruments had never shown up in the pool house again and by now, Julie was sure, that the boys were behind all of it. The disaster of the party, the haunting of the house now, the electric jolts she got whenever she touched something of her mom’s.

It was ridiculous and she had yelled at empty air more than once. Every now and again it earned her a snicker, a huff and in the morning, toes dipped into icy nothing.

Her plan of getting answers after the party evaporated. She was too busy trying to get Carlos off-track of ghosts haunting their house, because it felt uncomfortably close to the truth. Her dad left the house every day as soon as he found his keys and wallet which continuously turned up at the most ridiculous places. He wouldn’t come home until they had both gone to bed.

Julie had thought that they had gotten better at communicating after their nightly talk in the kitchen but apparently, she had been wrong.

She’d been wrong about so many things.

Her mom had run away, had left her family behind to live with the boys, to be in a band with them. It had taken her a day or two until she had actually started to believe in it.

She had tried asking the questions in the pool house, hoping that the mention of her mother would somehow make them want to talk. It didn’t work. Instead, she ended up in the pool, drenched, laughter echoing around her.

“Very funny,” she had grumbled, stalking out at the shallow end. As she had wrang out her shirt, she had felt a presence next to her. “What did we do, huh?”

It had been the question at the forefront of her mind. What had they done to make them so mad? She had wrecked her brain again and again but there was nothing she could come up with. No good reason.

They all had had fun at the party, she was sure of it. The images of the three ghosts enjoying themselves still made her smile in the dead of the night when no one was around.

Well, when she thought no one was around. She couldn’t be too sure about that nowadays. There was only the hope, that they had learnt something about boundaries and privacy by now.

Of course, she hadn’t gotten an answer. Something had splashed the water behind her and she had frowned at the spot, at the ripples traveling over the surface.

“Whatever we did, I’m sorry, just…,” she sighed, “just please stop it.”

And she meant it.

The tension in the house would’ve been tangible without the added stress of things disappearing, food being inedible because somehow too much salt or pepper had been added. It didn’t do any good with the way they all acted around each other.

Her dad and tía were the worst. They couldn’t even look at each other without a grimace.

Julie had tried talking to both of them separately. Both times getting the same answer.

“Nothing to worry about, mija.”  
“It’s nothing, really, sobrina.”

She had just crossed her arms, sighed but there wasn’t anything she could do.

So, Julie spent most of her days holed up in her room. The old piano was her only friend, the keys calling to her. She played, a lot. Familiar melodies and new ones, the faulty keys not even bothering her anymore after the second or third day.

She started writing again, too. Snippets of songs, never able to finish anything but getting close enough a few times.

One night, she could’ve sworn that one of the boys was there, sitting next to her. She had shivered and the coldness had disappeared a moment later. The next morning, a line had been scribbled down in her notebook.

Julie had barely been able to make out the words, but when she did, she couldn’t help the smile from spreading on her lips. They fit and they were good. She also recognized the handwriting from her mom’s old songbook.

Maybe, they weren’t as mad as she had thought.

\- - -

Two weeks after the party, tía and her dad decided to lift the grounding.

Nothing really changed for Julie afterwards, though. She didn’t have any friends in L.A., not like Flynn who disappeared the moment, she was allowed to.

Julie watched her leave from her window, turning back to her piano as the gate closed behind her cousin. The loss of a friend had never hurt as bad as it did with her. She had left many behind while moving around the country but with none of them had she clicked in the same way.

The next morning, Julie was once again the first one awake. She still had trouble sleeping and her alarm blinked with a greenish five at the front.

Groaning, she squeezed her eyes shut but if she had learnt anything it was that sleep never came again after she had woken up once. She swung her legs out of bed, expecting the cold, a little surprised when her feet touched the ground at a normal temperature.

Tugging one of her mother’s old sweaters over her head, she made her way downstairs. It was a Thursday morning, the sun still hidden behind the hills and the house so quiet around her.

Tonya would be up in an hour but they didn’t prepare breakfast together anymore, so Julie wanted to make herself some cereal before the air in the kitchen got too stifling. She turned the corner from the hallway when she stopped mid-step.

Reggie was coming her way, whistling, her dad’s keys and wallet in hand. The moment he spotted her, he froze. His mouth opened and closed a few times, brain obviously trying to come up with something to say.

“What the hell?!” Julie crossed her arms. Nobody else’s things had disappeared as often as her father’s. And she was going to put a stop to it. At least for him. “What are you gonna do with that?! Haven’t you messed up enough?!”

The ghost quickly shook his head, sputtering out, “What- no! Wait, that’s not—ah, damn!” He deflated, shoulders falling in on themselves and fingers rubbing against her dad’s wallet. “It’s not like that.”

Julie frowned. “Then, what is it like? Because I’m slowly getting sick of you fucking everything up!”

The boy flinched at her loud tone and she felt bad instantly. “I’ve only been hiding his stuff, so he’ll stay home more… you know… because you miss him…”

She gaped. Julie had been expecting many reasons but definitely not this one. “You- what?”

Reggie sighed, wanted to say something else when Luke appeared next to him.

“Dude, Julie’s awake already, we gotta—”

“Yeah?” She prompted, when he stopped mid-sentence, staring at her like a deer caught in the headlights.

Crossing his arms, his face quickly changed from surprise into hostility. Eyes boring into hers, she didn’t let her gaze waver, knowing full well that it would mean admitting defeat. She didn’t even know what point she was trying to prove but she would not lose against him.

Reggie’s eyes bounced between the two of them, uncertain on what to do next. He was still fiddling with the wallet, nerves so plainly visible that they infected Julie, too.

She started playing with the friendship bracelet Flynn had found in her mother’s old room. Finally, she couldn’t take it any longer. “What’s going on? First, you ruin the party and then you start with the petty haunting, that honestly, it’s not that creative—”

Both boys gasped, but Julie ignored them.

She stepped closer to them, making sure, her voice wasn’t waking up anybody, as she continued, “And finally, you decide to ruin any chance we had of getting along by playing us against each other!”

Luke huffed. “Oh, don’t act like that’s your biggest problem!”

She frowned. “Of course, it is! We’re supposed to live together, remember?”

“Yeah, for a year,” he shot back. They were so close now, she could feel the familiar coldness come off him in waves.

Reggie flinched once again, shrinking in on himself and Julie clocked the movement. “You’re leaving…” His voice was wavering, breaking at the last word.

Startled Julie looked at the two ghosts in front of her. “Well, yeah, that’s the plan,” she said. “We have to live here for a year and then we’re allowed to sell.”

He paled even further, while Luke’s expression hardened even more. “So, you’re really selling the house?”

She nodded and shrugged. “Yeah, probably… I mean, with the way it is right now, I don’t see us staying longer than necessary.”

It obviously was the wrong thing to say because while the last bit of air seemed to leave Reggie, Luke was taking a huge unnecessary breath. He pushed his shoulders back, made himself look taller than he was and through gritted teeth, he said, “We didn’t work our asses off for you to sell this place! This is our home and if you think you can sell it with all the shit that’s constantly happening here then go ahead and ask Mrs Jenkins because she tried. For years she tried at the beginning and she never got it off the market! We’ve been nice because your Rose’s family but selling the house, we won’t just stand by and watch!”

Julie blinked. “You’ve done this before?”

A satisfied smirk played around his lips as he leaned forward. “Oh, Julie, you know absolutely nothing about what we are capable of…”

“Alex said, you don’t even know what you’re capable of,” she countered and he raised a challenging eyebrow.

“Wanna find out?”

They eyed each other; brown eyes bore into green neither of them willing to back down. The cold air around him had grown warmer with every inch he’d come closer and she could feel his breath on her skin. Which was ridiculous, he was dead and it probably was just a trick her mind was playing on her.

It didn’t stop her from shivering, though and his smirk turned triumphant, taking the win.

With a sigh she took a step back, his eyes still fixed on her. Julie looked back at Reggie who seemed so small and lost. Luke was right, this was their home and it could’ve been one for her family, too. She could’ve called the place where her mom had lived her home. If only they hadn’t butchered any progress towards the two Molina families growing closer by haunting and sowing mistrust.

“Look,” Julie said, making sure that her voice was as calm as possible to not startle Reggie again, “I get it. This is your home, you don’t wanna lose it and—”

She stopped mid-sentence because suddenly, an idea popped into her head. Both ghosts looked at her, mirroring frowns on their faces and Julie checked their expressions carefully. Tampering down on the triumph bubbling up inside her, she took a step forward.

“—I promise, I’ll do everything in my power to keep my family from selling the house. In return, you stop whatever the hell you’ve been doing the past two weeks and answer me some questions.”

Reggie immediately crowded close, mumbling into Luke’s ear, the excitement radiating of him. His eyes suddenly seemed a lot more alive than they had just a few moments ago. Not even Luke could hide that he was intrigued by the deal she had proposed.

“So?” Julie asked, clasping her hands in front of her chest, pretty sure that she had already won.

“We’ll have to talk to Alex first.” Luke’s voice was carefully empty, expression carefully blank.

She nodded. “Of course, totally get it. You know where to find me.”

Without waiting for their response, she walked past them into the kitchen, unable to keep the satisfied grin from her face. She was finally going to get some answers. And maybe even save the peace between their families along the way.

\- - -

It was shortly after midnight, when a hand moved through her door, knocking against the wood on the inside of her room. She had been working on a new pair of jeans, trying to sketch a dahlia for the last two hours because they were frustratingly hard to draw and Julie was rarely satisfied.

Raising an eyebrow, she called out, “Come in!”

A moment later, three ghosts stepped through the door. She took in their outfits, realizing that they obviously had dressed up for this. Reggie was wearing a shiny black leather jacket, Alex wasn’t wearing his standard snap-back and Luke was wearing sleeves, the hat gone from his head.

“So?”, she prompted when neither of them said anything, their entrance stretching into awkwardness.

“First of all, we wanted to apologize for everything that happened in the last days,” Reggie started, grinning sheepishly. “That wasn’t very nice but—”

“—we couldn’t let you sell the house. It’s, it’s our home,” continued Luke, shrugging. His eyes betrayed his nonchalance.

They had all been hurt by the possibility of losing the place they called home, where they had spent the last twenty-five years holding onto a life long gone. Julie felt sorry for them, knew that the healthy thing would be for them to move on, whatever that meant. But before they would disappear to heaven ( _or hell_ , a petty little voice that sounded suspiciously like Flynn whispered in her head) they’d have to answer her some questions.

“I get it,” she said, putting away her sketch book and getting off the bed. A little part of her wished, she had a place she could call home, that she loved just as much. She could only imagine the feeling of safety, of familiarity. That had always been her mom to her, her embrace and laugh and scent, until she had discovered all the secrets. “Just, no more haunting, please?”

“Carlos didn’t seem to mind,” mumbled Reggie, earning himself an elbow against his ribs from Alex and a stern look by Julie. “Okay, okay, fine, no more haunting.”

“And you’ll talk to your family?” Luke was frowning, rubbing the blue rabbit’s foot hanging off the chains on his jeans.

Julie smiled. “I will, I promise.”

“Okay, they said you had some questions,” started Alex, stepping a little closer to her.

“Yeah,” she breathed out, “yeah, uh, they’re about my mom.”

“I figured,” he smiled gently.

“You guys knew her pretty well, huh?” Julie asked and she couldn’t stop her heart from picking up speed. She’d finally, finally get the answers she’d been longing for. Maybe the memories of her mom would feel like home again, then. Soothe the pain, instead of increasing it.

“We lived together, so I’d say, yeah, we knew her pretty well,” grinned Reggie, “I mean, you know she’d always whine on and on about living with four guys but she never really meant it, right, boys?”

His friends shook their head, while Julie frowned. “Four?”

“Yeah, Bobby, he... he disappeared after everything but that’s not important,” waved of Luke, “You want to know about Rose but I feel like showing you would be just easier.”

“Show me?” Julie frowned, Bobby long forgotten because excitement bubbled up inside of her, spurred on by the twinkle in Luke’s eyes.

He stepped up next to Alex, rested his hand on the blond’s shoulder and leaned forward. “You ever cracked that lock?”

His head nodded towards the door, towards the spiral staircase behind it leading up to the trap door. A smirk played around his lips and he didn’t even wait for her answer which he obviously knew. They had disturbed every attempt after all.

“What if we could tell you where the key is?”

\- - -

Twenty minutes later she stepped onto the staircase, the three ghosts behind her. Her heart was racing, hand shaking as she tried to fit the key into the lock. She slipped once, twice before a hand touched hers.

"Let me," whispered Reggie and his touch should've felt strange but it didn't. He wasn't as cold as she had come to expect.

Julie gave him the key, watched as it moved inside the lock. It sprung open with a soft click that echoed thunderously through the dark hallway. For a moment, she was afraid that they were gonna wake everybody up but no sound travelled their way, nobody stirred.

"Let's go!" Luke seemed to be almost as excited as she was.

She pushed the trap door upwards, took the last few steps and entered the dark room. One of the boys let out a sigh close to her head, the air sending a shiver down her spine.

"Just wait," said Alex and she could actually hear him move around which she knew was probably more for her benefit. He could've just fazed through everything without making any sound. Another soft click, this time from a light switch and the room lit up.

A gasp fell from Julie's lips as she took it all in. There were so many fairy lights strung all over the ceiling, illuminating the space. It was beautiful. The instruments from the pool house sat in the middle of it, a little more cramped but they all looked like they belonged. There was a corner filled with ornamental pillows that looked so comfy, Julie wanted nothing more than to fall asleep there. The curtains on all the windows were drawn and one wall was just littered with hundreds of polaroids.

"This was her favorite room." Alex spoke quietly, fondness laced through his voice. "We were rarely allowed up here. It was always her space to get a little quiet, a little peace from us." He chuckled. "Well, not me but, you know, they can be a handful..."

Carefully, Julie walked into the middle of the room, right next to the grand piano. She checked in with Luke who smiled lopsidedly before she touched it. A jolt of electricity ran up her arm. For a second, she thought one of the boys had touched her but they were all still huddled together at the stairs, Alex having rejoined his friends.

"It's beautiful," breathed out Julie, gently letting her hand wander over the keys, not pressing them down just yet.

"We haven't really been up in here in years... it hurts," admitted Reggie, "But after we brought our instruments up here, we cleaned up a little bit."

"All of Rose' stuff is up here. We made sure to keep it safe for when she'd return, but..." Luke trailed off, biting his lip. "I guess, it's all yours now."

He moved through the room until he reached a heavy wooden chest. A dahlia adorned the lock and he opened it swiftly. The grand piano was forgotten immediately, as Julie kneeled down in front of her mother's memories.

The chest was filled with clothes, tickets, picture frames and so many little things, she didn't even know where to start.

"What's this?" She asked, picking up the CD lying on top of a white shirt.

"That's our demo, it's... she got the first copy back then." Pride swung with Luke's voice and Julie looked up at him. "She actually co-wrote a bunch of the songs on it."

"She wrote songs?" Julie asked, as she pulled out the shirt. 'Sunset Curve' was written on it in black letters, the same logo as on the CD case.

Alex sat down on the pillows next to her. "She was an amazing songwriter," he said, smiling, "Maybe even better than Luke."

"Hey," protested the boy closest to her.

"Just saying, without her help, our first album would've never taken off like it did!"

"That's—”

“True and you know it,” piped up Reggie. He had picked up his bass, plucking the strings mindlessly.

Luke grumbled something under his breath and Julie turned back to the chest. There was still so much to comb through, to find out about her mom but she hadn’t felt this close to her ever since they had left her at the hospital.

Maybe it was the room, filled with her energy, or maybe it was the boys’ soft bickering surrounding her but a smile spread on her lips, eyes jumping from her mother’s things to each of the ghosts, taking it all in. A strange calmness washed over her, a giggle escaping her when Luke took Reggie into a headlock after a comment about one of their adventures.

She picked up a stack of tickets, thumbing through them, amazed at all the concerts her mom had visited. A piece of paper fell out, a business card and Julie would’ve dismissed it, had the name not caught her attention.

The card was simply, black with only the name and address on it.

‘Hollywood Ghost Club’ stood at the top in shiny block letters. Something stirred inside of her, the possibility of more ghosts out there suddenly coming back to the forefront of her mind.

What if her mom had believed in ghosts? Was she still out there? A ghost, just like her old friends?

Julie read the address, let the card disappear inside of her cardigan, glad that neither of the boys had seen it. It couldn't hurt to check it out. She wanted to do it on her own, though, because the idea of her mom being out there, it'd may make the boys stop answer her questions and start haunting the house again and she couldn't have that.

She just hoped, the place was still there. Twenty-five years were a long time.


End file.
